The COMPASS project was successfully started in a Kick of Meeting held in Reykjavik, Iceland on November 2022. The project coordinator for COMPASS is ON Power. Nine other partners from Iceland, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Norway, and the Netherlands comprise the project consortium.
The challenge of high-temperature systems
The main challenges that COMPASS seeks to address are related to well integrity. Accessing deeper geothermal resources also means having to deal with extreme temperature changes and corrosive fluid chemistry. Serious problems with casing failures had already been encountered by two of the three wells in the Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP). Numerous other examples demonstrate that conventional well concepts, mainly transferred from oil and gas applications, are barely sufficient for geothermal use.
COMPASS aims to address these challenges by developing improved and innovative well casing technologies:
Novel foam cement solutions suitable for high-temperature formations that can mitigate high-temperature induced stress, thus helping to ensure well integrity;
Cost-effective laser cladding for improved corrosion protection of casing pipes.
These technology developments will be complemented by robust well designs solutions to reduce project risk and reduce LCOE, resulting in economically viable geothermal development in new types of geological settings.
The COMPASS consortium
The COMPASS consortium is comprised of a diverse team of major geothermal research institutes and industry players. The combination encourages the sharing of knowledge and experience, and seamless transfer of novel well construction technologies by industry application.
The consortium members are as follows:
ON Power OHF (Project coordinator)
Orkuveita Reykjavikur
GEORG
Hornet Laser Cladding BV
ISOR
SINTEF AS
CURISTEC
CoSVIG
Technovative Solutions Ltd. (TVS)
TWI LTD
In April 2023, the consortium organized its second project meeting and general assembly in Larderello, Italy. The COMPASS project, through COSVIG, will implement and test a process to engage with local communities in the areas in order to tackle issues related to the public acceptance of geothermal projects. The process implemented in geothermal areas in Tuscany will be one of the project’s lighthouse case studies to be replicated in other geothermal territories.
Funding support
The Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme has provided a grant of EUR 4 million for the COMPASS project. The British partners of the project will be funded by the UK Research and Innovation fund for approx. EUR 1 million
