University of Oklahoma associate professor Saeed Salehi is leading a team of researchers from the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering in the Mewbourne College of Earth and Energy to turn abandoned/retired oil and gas wells into geothermal wells that they hope to eventually heat two Tuttle, Oklahoma, schools.
The OU team will be one of the pioneers in the world to put theory into practice and demonstrate the efficacy of this model.
“Researchers from around the world are doing simulations, doing calculations to show that this concept may work, but this is the first time somebody is going to go and do it,” said Salehi.
The wells for this project were strategically chosen because of their proximity to two Tuttle schools. The scope of this project does not include the next step of heating the schools with geothermal energy, but rather ensuring that it is possible. Salehi and his team hope that once their current project is completed, they can apply for new grants and state matching funds to make heating the schools with geothermal energy a possibility.
If that happens, the Tuttle elementary and middle schools would be the first buildings in the world to be heated by geothermal energy from repurposed deep oil wells.
While researchers around the world will be following the project with interest, it is the students at the Tuttle schools who will get up-close opportunities to interact with the OU research team. This includes OU students and faculty visiting the schools with updates about the project and guest lectures about geothermal energy.
The project comes at an exciting time for the Mewbourne School, which plans to launch a new geothermal-focused undergraduate degree, GeoEnergy Engineering, in fall 2022.