Abandoned wells are a big problem. They require significant investment to be adequately sealed and pose risks to the environment due to the susceptibility of methane leakage. One alternative is repurposing the wells to geothermal energy, which would also save costs of drilling geothermal wells. This idea is not new, and many projects have attempted to demonstrate its feasibility. In our latest publication, we analyzed these projects and evaluated the challenges they faced.
Besides challenges with well integrity, legislation, and data availability, most wells are located in remote areas and have demonstrated low efficiency. Repurposing wells for geothermal energy might be one of the solutions to well abandonment, but it still requires future innovations to make it economically and technically feasible.