Today and tomorrow, Southern Methodist University is hosting "an international energy conference specializing in the enhancement of existing oil and gas wells for electrical production from the Earth’s heat." The idea is to capitalize on the high temperatures that oil drilling fluids are exposed to when they go "down there," then use the temperature differential when it gets topside to generate electricity. Apparently this is already being done in two places: Chena Hot Springs, Alaska and the Wyoming Rocky Mountain Oil Field Testing Center. The business opportunity to increase the revenue generating potential of tired, old wells provides ancillary benefits of producing renewable energy, developing our geothermal capabilities, and producing more oil stateside.
For more info on the conference, see here. For more info on SMU's geothermal efforts, see here.
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