Renewable Geothermal

Technology

RenewGeo is the innovative technology of collecting solar energy in the form of heat and injecting this heat into the ground to create a synthetic geothermal resource. The heat is stored daily to create a thermal battery that can be tapped and transformed into carbon free electricity anytime, day or night.

UC-Won has built an experienced team of engineers, geologists, and experts in geothermal plant operation to execute proprietary technology to create a utility scale, carbon free source of electricity to displace the fossil fueled outdated legacy grid.

SAGE

RenewGeo builds on the work started by Sovani Meksvanh, Doug Swift, and Ron Whelan and described in US Patent 7,472,548 to create Solar Augmented Geothermal Energy (SAGE). The SAGE patent created an integrated approach to solar heat to recover oil, create clean drinking water, and produce carbon free power.

RenewGeo extends this patent to provide critical grid infrastructure, carbon-free electrical baseload generation, and geothermal battery storage opportunities.

The Development Team

Innovative and Experienced

Mark Hauenstein

Project Lead

Doug Swift

IP Team

Steve DeOreo

Geologist

Homestretch Geothermal

Geothermal Operations

Nikhil Patel

General Counsel

History

RenewGeo from today to the beginning.

2023

Flow Testing And Modeling

In June 2023, we began testing the new conditions and this work continues today.
2022

UC Won Begins Flow Testing

UC Won begins flow testing at Salt Wells, Nevada. Based on the results, we developed a new set of testing conditions to continue to model large scale thermal storage. In December 2022, we obtained regulatory approvals for a new round of flow testing, and this work continued into 2023.
2020

UC Won Obtains Federal and State Approvals

UC Won has been granted Federal and State approvals to begin testing wells for new technology.
2019

Nevada PUC Approved Petition For RenewGeo

UC Won has secured an order from the Public Utilities Commission confirming that UC Won’s solar augmented geothermal energy technology could be used to serve an end-use customer in Nevada without state regulation.
2019

INL Publishes Paper

May 2019 - Idaho National Laboratory publishes paper where "The present study evaluated the use of a large number of dedicated wells to store and recover heat, essentially creating a synthetic geothermal reservoir." The report concludes the system "provides a potential pathway for the nation's energy infrastructure to evolve more quickly to renewable, carbon-free electric sources and a sustainable energy future."
2018

Geothermal Wells Secured

UC Won secured leases on existing geothermal production wells in Northern Nevada to begin testing to deploy RenewGeo technology. Securing these wells ends a two-year search for suitable wells to use for testing. According to Steve DeOreo, geothermal geologist working on the project, “Although the site was originally developed and has potential for conventional geothermal, the configuration of the existing wells is suitable for the RenewGeo technology.”
2017

Renew Geothermal is born

Mark Hauenstein with UC-Won, in working with the original inventors, was granted a license for the patent 2006/0048770 for solar augmented geothermal process. Together with other patents filed by UC-Won, an architecture and team emerges that brings together the technology and expertise to create large scale 24/7 carbon free electricity from a solar augmented charged geothermal resource.
2015

Solar Thermal Expansion

In July 2015, Petroleum Development Oman and GlassPoint Solar announced that they signed a $600 million agreement to build a 1 GWth solar field on the Amal oilfield. The project, named Miraah, will be the world's largest solar field measured by peak thermal capacity.
2005

Production Scale Thermal Assist

The world’s first full field Thermally Assisted Gas Oil Gravity Drainage (TAGOGD) development has been successfully implemented in Oman at Qarn Alam Fractured Carbonate Reservoir. The concept of TAGOGD was invented by Shell in 1992 and the first successful pilot was developed in the Qarn Alam field from 1995 to 2005, during which 1.3 million tons of steam were injected. The benefit was clearly demonstrated by the fact that this recovery process increased the recovery factor tenfold from 3% to over 30%. This is exceptional for any EOR project.
2005

Solar Augmented Geothermal Energy (SAGE)

In the early 2000s, Doug Swift and Ron Whelan traveled to Oman to offer assistance and expertise on solar energy systems for EOR for the Qarn Alam project. At the time, the project was looking for an alternate to burning natural gas for the thermal energy source. Doug and Ron developed a solar powered solution and their unique proposal was adopted. Sovani Meksvanh, Doug Swift, and Ron Whelan filed application for a patent entitled, "Solar Augmented Geothermal Energy" in 2005, and this application was granted a patent (2006/0048770) in March 2006.
1957

Solar Thermal is Born

Solar thermal has been used for EOR, dating back to 1957, when Atlantic Richfield tried an experimental facility in California.
1907

Thermal Injection

Thermal injection, which involves the introduction of heat, is one form of enhanced oil recovery (EOR) and dates back to the early 1900's. Themal injection today accounts for 40 percent of EOR production in the United States, with most of it occurring in California.
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