Lehigh researchers are part of a Pennsylvania team testing whether the heat beneath the state can power homes, businesses and farms using infrastructure the energy industry has already built.
The university has received $1.6 million to participate in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) pilot demonstration, a U.S. Department of Energy-funded project led by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. The goal of the project, which has a total budget of about $14 million, is to produce one megawatt of electricity from an underperforming Marcellus Shale gas well in Indiana County by circulating water at depth and bringing the heated water to the surface. That heat would supply electricity to the local grid and direct heating to nearby homes and businesses.
Project leaders say the approach could also create opportunities for displaced oil, gas and coal workers and show that geothermal energy can work in the Eastern U.S. Lehigh’s funding will support five researchers and students from the College of Arts and Sciences’ Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science’s Energy Research Center. Frank Pazzaglia, professor of earth and environmental sciences, serves as principal investigator.
Read the full story to learn more about the project, the Lehigh researchers involved and the partners working to give existing wells a second life as a clean energy source.
