Old Oil and Gas Wells Could Find Second Life Producing Clean Energy
Old Oil and Gas Wells Could Find Second Life Producing Clean Energy
旧油气井或将迎来“第二春”，转型生产清洁能源
As states seek out much-needed supplies of clean, reliable energy, some are looking to an unconventional source: abandoned oil and gas wells harnessed for geothermal heat. 随着各州寻求急需的清洁、可靠能源供应，一些州正将目光投向一个非传统的来源：利用废弃的油气井来获取地热能。
Millions of inactive wells are littered across the United States, the relics of earlier eras of fossil fuel production. A large number of the sites have no official owner, and many are still polluting groundwater and leaking heat-trapping methane. The country has barely scratched the surface in dealing with this problem. 数以百万计的闲置油井散布在美国各地，它们是早期化石燃料生产时代的遗迹。其中大量井址没有官方所有者，许多仍在污染地下水并泄漏导致气候变暖的甲烷。美国在解决这一问题上才刚刚起步。
Policymakers in both Republican- and Democratic-led states are exploring whether these sites could instead be converted into new wells for producing geothermal energy. The holes are already drilled in the ground, after all. And regions with widespread oil and gas development have rich subsurface data that geothermal firms need in order to determine where and how to build their carbon-free systems. 共和党和民主党执政州的政策制定者们正在探索，是否可以将这些井址改造为生产地热能的新井。毕竟，这些井孔已经钻好了。此外，油气开发广泛的地区拥有丰富的地下数据，而地热公司正是需要这些数据来确定在何处以及如何建设其零碳系统。
The concept is relatively new and largely untested, though scientists and startups are working to change that. States are also laying the groundwork for action by lifting regulatory hurdles and launching in-depth studies. 这一概念相对较新，且在很大程度上尚未经过验证，但科学家和初创企业正致力于改变这一现状。各州也通过消除监管障碍和开展深入研究，为采取行动奠定基础。
In Oklahoma, the state Senate is considering a bill that would create a process for companies to buy abandoned oil and gas wells and repurpose them for geothermal energy or underground energy storage. Oklahoma has identified over 20,000 such wells, and state regulators estimate that it would take 235 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to plug all of them. Fixing a single old well can cost anywhere from $75,000 to $150,000 or more, by some calculations, depending on where it’s located and how complicated it is to clean up. 在俄克拉荷马州，州参议院正在审议一项法案，旨在为企业购买废弃油气井并将其改造为地热能或地下储能设施建立流程。俄克拉荷马州已确定了超过 2 万口此类油井，州监管机构估计，要封堵所有这些油井需要 235 年的时间和数亿美元的资金。据测算，修复一口旧井的成本从 7.5 万美元到 15 万美元甚至更多不等，具体取决于其地理位置和清理工作的复杂程度。
The Well Repurposing Act, which passed Oklahoma’s House in March, is modeled after a similar law that New Mexico adopted last year to address its 2,000-plus orphan wells. 今年 3 月在俄克拉荷马州众议院通过的《油井改造法案》（Well Repurposing Act），效仿了新墨西哥州去年通过的一项类似法律，旨在解决该州 2000 多口“孤儿井”（无人认领的废弃井）问题。
The Oklahoma bill “recognizes that these wells are a liability, and that there may be a way to turn them into some sort of revenue generation and give them value,” said Dave Tragethon, communications director for the nonprofit Well Done Foundation, which works to find and cap abandoned oil and gas wells nationwide. “And if there’s value, that means there’s more of a willingness to address them and more of an opportunity to raise funding.” 非营利组织“Well Done Foundation”的传播总监戴夫·特拉格森（Dave Tragethon）表示，俄克拉荷马州的法案“认识到这些油井是一种负债，但也可能存在某种方式将其转化为创收来源并赋予其价值”。该组织致力于在全国范围内寻找并封堵废弃的油气井。“如果有了价值，就意味着人们更有意愿去处理它们，也更有机会筹集到资金。”
In Alabama, legislators passed a law last month that allows the state to approve and regulate the conversion of oil and gas wells to tap alternative energy resources like geothermal. North Dakota adopted a bill last year requiring a legislative council to study the feasibility of using nonproductive wells to generate geothermal power. And in Colorado, state agencies just launched a technical study to evaluate the potential of repurposing old wells for geothermal development and carbon capture and sequestration. 在阿拉巴马州，立法者上个月通过了一项法律，允许州政府批准并监管将油气井改造为开发地热等替代能源资源。北达科他州去年通过了一项法案，要求立法委员会研究利用非生产性油井发电的可行性。在科罗拉多州，州政府机构刚刚启动了一项技术研究，以评估将旧油井改造用于地热开发和碳捕集与封存的潜力。
These efforts reflect the growing bipartisan support for geothermal energy, which has largely remained unscathed by the Trump administration’s efforts to block renewable energy projects. The energy resource has the potential to help meet the nation’s soaring energy demand while also slashing planet-warming emissions from electricity and heating. 这些努力反映了跨党派对地热能的支持日益增长，地热能基本上未受到特朗普政府阻挠可再生能源项目的影响。这种能源资源不仅有潜力帮助满足国家飙升的能源需求，还能大幅削减电力和供暖产生的温室气体排放。
Converting Wells Is Enticing but Complicated
改造油井：诱人但复杂
Geothermal systems work by circulating fluids underground to capture naturally occurring heat, which can then be used to drive turbines for generating electricity or to directly warm the air and water in buildings. The industry is gaining momentum thanks to recent advances in drilling methods and technologies that are making it technically possible or financially viable to access geothermal energy in more places. 地热系统的工作原理是通过在地下循环流体来捕获天然热量，这些热量随后可用于驱动涡轮机发电，或直接为建筑物内的空气和水供暖。得益于钻井方法和技术的最新进展，该行业正获得发展动力，使得在更多地方获取地热能在技术上可行或在经济上划算。
Many of those breakthroughs have come from the oil and gas industry, whose skilled workforce of drilling engineers and geoscientists, and deep corporate pockets, have helped launch startups and deploy cutting-edge systems. However, most of that expertise and funding is being poured into building new projects—not figuring out how to retool leaky wells left behind by earlier generations. 许多突破来自油气行业，其拥有熟练的钻井工程师和地球科学家队伍，以及雄厚的企业资金，这些都有助于启动初创企业并部署尖端系统。然而，大部分专业知识和资金都投入到了建设新项目中，而不是研究如何改造前几代人留下的泄漏油井。
“Oil and gas well conversion presents an enormous opportunity, but it’s pretty far away technologically from being a reality,” said Emily Pope, a geologist and senior fellow at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions who authored a recent study on next-generation geothermal power. “油气井改造提供了一个巨大的机会，但在技术上距离成为现实还很遥远，”气候与能源解决方案中心（Center for Climate and Energy Solutions）的地质学家兼高级研究员艾米丽·波普（Emily Pope）表示，她最近撰写了一份关于下一代地热能的研究报告。
“There are some hurdles that are still pretty immense,” she said, adding that “it is worth doing some R&D to try and grow.” “目前仍存在一些巨大的障碍，”她说道，并补充称“进行一些研发以尝试推动其发展是值得的。”
One of the biggest challenges is the fact that oil and gas wells tend to reach relatively low to medium underground temperatures. But high heat is key for geothermal projects, especially ones that generate electricity. The hotter the resource, the more energy a developer can wring out of the system. 最大的挑战之一是油气井的地下温度通常处于中低水平。但高温是地热项目的关键，尤其是发电项目。资源温度越高，开发商从系统中获取的能量就越多。
Plus, fossil fuel wells generally produce smaller volumes of liquid and gas than geothermal wells need in order to spin power turbines or transfer heat to buildings. Geothermal operators might also have to take extra steps to keep nasty elements in the subsurface reservoirs from mixing with the working fluids used to extract heat underground, said Arash Dahi Taleghani, an engineering professor with the Repurposing Center for Energy Transition at Pennsylvania State University. 此外，化石燃料井产生的液体和气体量通常比地热井驱动涡轮机或向建筑物供热所需的小。宾夕法尼亚州立大学能源转型改造中心（Repurposing Center for Energy Transition）的工程学教授阿拉什·达希·塔莱加尼（Arash Dahi Taleghani）表示，地热运营商可能还必须采取额外措施，防止地下储层中的有害元素与用于提取地下热量的工作流体混合。
He added that the high cost of converting wells to geothermal has limited the number of real-world examples so far. 他补充说，将油井改造为地热井的高昂成本限制了迄今为止的实际应用案例数量。
Early Research Efforts Target Direct-Use Heat and Storage
早期研究致力于直接供热与储能
At the University of Oklahoma, however, researchers have been evaluating how to turn four old oil and gas wells into sources of geothermal heat, which they hope to pipe into nearby public schools and homes in the city of Tuttle. The project was awarded a $1.7 million grant from the US Department of Energy’s Wells of Opportunity program in 2022, though it was paused last year during the Trump administration’s sweeping freeze on federal funding and is still waiting to start its next phase, KGOU reported in March. 然而，在俄克拉荷马大学，研究人员一直在评估如何将四口旧油气井转化为地热源，他们希望将其输送到塔特尔市（Tuttle）附近的公立学校和住宅中。据 KGOU 3 月份报道，该项目于 2022 年获得了美国能源部“机会之井”（Wells of Opportunity）计划 170 万美元的资助，尽管该项目在去年特朗普政府全面冻结联邦资金期间被迫暂停，目前仍在等待启动下一阶段。
Saeed Salehi was the Oklahoma project’s director before joining Southern Methodist University as an engineering professor. 赛义德·萨利希（Saeed Salehi）在加入南卫理公会大学担任工程学教授之前，曾担任该俄克拉荷马州项目的负责人。