Sandia National Laboratories
Exceptional service in the national interest
About
News
Research
Partnerships
Careers
Sandia sustains many different, unique capabilities for designing, characterizing, and assembling novel geothermal technologies. Learn more about the various facilities used by our geothermal research program.
On this page:
Hard Rock Drilling Facility | Geothermal Technology Evaluation Lab | Electronics Development Lab | Geothermal Technologies Field Evaluation Site | High Operating Temperature (HOT) Facility | Facility for Acceptance, Calibration, and Testing (FACT) | Geomechanics Laboratory | Microsystem Assembly & Brazing Facility |
Geothermal resources are typically associated with igneous and metamorphic rocks, which are harder than the sedimentary rocks through which most oil and gas wells are drilled. The Hard Rock Drilling Facility features a vertical coring machine designed and developed at Sandia. It is used for: 1) evaluating hard-rock penetration technologies, 2) researching the mechanisms of drill bit vibrations, 3) developing downhole drilling tools, and 4) evaluating best practices for drilling.
Sandia maintains a large laboratory facility for the development, assembly, and testing of geothermal technologies. Sandia’s evaluation and assembly facility provides several testing, processing, and packaging stations and capabilities for high-temperature packaging, high-temperature and high-pressure testing, high-temperature and high-pressure rheometer, chemical processing, and a dynamometer test station.
The Electronics Development Lab offers capabilities for high temperature electronic fabrication and assembly, the evaluation of electromagnetic hardware, optical evaluation, 3D printing, and long-term storage of sensitive electronics while under electro-static protection.
A large plot of land, known as Tech Area III, allows Sandia’s geothermal research program to evaluate large systems. For example, the program has 1,000 feet of drilling pipe that was used for evaluating acoustic communications for logging-while-drilling tools, 160 feet of wired pipe for permanent subsurface monitoring, and short-depth wells. This site is essential for experiments that require a considerable amount of space. The site also includes the High Operating Temperature (HOT) Facility and offers directional and vertical subsurface drilling capabilities.
Sandia’s High Operating Temperature (HOT) Facility houses a 20-foot-tall drill rig, heating chamber, and process gas heater. HOT can simulate conditions deep underground by elevating the temperatures directly to the drill bit and can enable drilling through different types of rock, such as granite. In addition to testing drilling tools at temperature, the facility can conduct research for drilling automation and control.
The Sandia FACT Site provides the equipment and seismically quiet surroundings required for testing infrasound and seismic sensors, instrumentation, and monitoring systems. This site allows for geothermal tools to be tested with a wireline truck to confirm standard operation of communications and power before committing to a geothermal well.
Sandia has extensive experience understanding the mechanical, hydrological, chemical, and thermal forces at play in geothermal systems and during drilling projects. Geothermal drilling and development require thorough characterization of the in-situ rock properties, fracture processes, and borehole stability, all of which can be characterized through our experimental facilities at Sandia. The Geomechanics Laboratory is currently looking to study these processes at higher temperature conditions (>100 ˚C) to evaluate the geothermal reservoirs’ stability as well as the various drilling tools and reservoir engineering technologies developed to enhance production capabilities.
The Microsystem Assembly and Brazing Facility offers advanced capabilities for epoxy die bonding, soldering, wire bonding, seam sealing, holistic packaging and materials process analysis, metal deposition (e.g., PVD, CVD, ALD), 3D printing (e.g., PEEK, Composite, FDM), laser machining, temperature cycling and aging, and PWA rapid prototyping.