The First Truly Mobile Geothermal Drilling Rig

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GeoTherm SWS is an innovative drilling rig for geothermal applications developed to convert deep geothermal power (>1500 m) to an affordable energy source for rural and remote areas, by offering a truly mobile drilling system with drastic costs optimizations. Developing deep geothermal power plants requires the use of expensive and difficult to transport and operate heavy drilling machinery fit for oil and gas market purposes. As a result, up to 70% of the construction costs of geothermal plants are related to drilling. These costs are, in proportion, higher for small geothermal plants. As such, the potential of small-scale geothermal power is hindered where it is needed the most, in remote areas (e.g. rural region, islands) where currently highly polluting diesel generators are being used. Qmatec is the Norwegian market leader in the supply of mobile drilling rigs. Having identified these needs we developed GeoTherm SWS; a compact, mobile and easy to transport drilling rig with a pioneering interchangeable drilling mechanism, able to conduct 3 drilling methods; core/diamond, rotation and Down-the-hole) allowing to reduce operating cost at a factor 3. Our uniquely light final product (2,100tn – 4 times lighter than existing solutions) has an up to 4 times lower final price. Thus, we achieve the reduction of drilling costs by 70% in small scale deep geothermal energy projects. Moreover, GeoTherm SWS makes possible the development of small geothermal projects even in isolated rural areas, reducing 90 % the carbon emissions otherwise caused by diesel generators. Our innovation has already attracted the interest of global leaders in the drilling industry as North Tech Energy and Equinor. Our vision is to become an innovation leader in the geothermal drilling market and we have estimated that we will need an additional investment of €2 million to achieve that and bring our product to the market.