{"id":34507,"date":"2022-01-23T19:53:35","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T01:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=34507"},"modified":"2022-01-31T12:56:03","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T18:56:03","slug":"ou-researchers-aim-to-repurpose-abandoned-oil-wells-for-geothermal-energy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2022\/01\/23\/ou-researchers-aim-to-repurpose-abandoned-oil-wells-for-geothermal-energy\/","title":{"rendered":"OU researchers aim to repurpose abandoned oil wells for geothermal energy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma were awarded $1.7 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to repurpose abandoned oil and gas wells for providing geothermal energy.<\/span><\/p>

The grant will allow the researchers to evaluate and demonstrate the viability of geothermal energy production from four hydrocarbon wells. The proposed project plans to use the energy to heat nearby Tuttle Public Schools.<\/span><\/p>

The project\u2019s principal investigator, Saeed Salehi, said the idea to upcycle the old wells is a cost-efficient way to use infrastructure already in place.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cAfter you have produced oil and gas from those reservoirs and they are toward the end of their life, then instead of retiring those assets, [we] completely repurpose them to help the community with their energy needs,\u201d Salehi said.<\/span><\/p>

Salehi said because the water is being circulated from the ground and injected back into the ground, it\u2019s completely renewable.<\/span><\/p>

The project is still in its infancy, and Salehi said the team must first come up with a proof-of-concept before getting started on field work. Though it could be at least three years before the project is put into use, Salehi hopes this novel idea will catch the attention of energy companies and put Oklahoma on the map for another form of renewable energy.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cThe vision we have is to make Oklahoma the [geothermal energy capital] of the world. Because we have the resources, we have these wells, we have this fossil fuel industry active here,\u201d Salehi said. \u201cAnd everybody\u2019s talking about renewable energy and reducing the carbon footprint \u2014 there you go.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

The initiative is in partnership with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Blue Cedar Energy and Baker Hughes Company. More information about the project <\/span>can be found here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Researchers at the University of Oklahoma were awarded $1.7 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to repurpose abandoned oil and gas wells for providing geothermal energy.The grant will allow the researchers to evaluate and demonstrate the viability of geothermal energy production from four hydrocarbon wells. The proposed project plans to use the energy to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":216,"featured_media":6171,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[490,491,301],"tags":[863,1371,1068,469,1370,200],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34507"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34507"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34520,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34507\/revisions\/34520"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}