Oil Field Company Leads Innovation To Power Homes With Geothermal Energy In Oklahoma

Oklahoma researchers with Baker Hughes, an oil field company, along with other partners are working on a new innovation.

They want to transform the energy sector by converting geothermal heat into electricity to power homes.

Experts said they hope to one day be able to utilize something we already have a ton of here in Oklahoma: oil wells. New and old.

They will go down toward the Earth's core, extract geothermal heat and send it to a machine.

Jason Angolano, a lab manager for Baker Hughes, said the machine will convert that heat into energy,

"Geothermal is a way to utilize skill sets that many Oklahomans already have in a new way to produce power in a clean and efficient manner to power everyone's life,” Angolano said

The U.S. Is the top producer of geothermal energy across the globe.  

Rob Klenner, the Baker Hughes geothermal director, told News 9 that some Oklahomans use this process to turn up their heat. "Even in Oklahoma my neighbor is doing a geothermal heat pump at his house."

What Baker Hughes is working on: taking the heat and converting it to energy.

"Geothermal is used in several capacities but the way we are looking at it now is how to launch and use new innovative technologies," Klenner said.

Right now, they are in the development and testing phase,

"Currently in this laboratory working on a geothermal upgrade to our test wells to help demonstrate close loop technology for geothermal," Angolano said

They said the energy will be able to be produced all day long with no interruptions.

"The great part about this is it's baseload, it's 24/7 when the wind isn't blowing, or the sun isn't shining. You want to share your car or turn your lights on. This is the kind of energy that can meet that demand," Klenner said.

The obstacles: technology and cost.

"How do we not only do one but do it 100 times over so that as we do that, we are learning to scale the technology and make it cheaper," Klenner said.

Together these innovators hope they can make a positive change.

"There is zero waste, zero emissions and the only thing that we are pulling out of the ground is heat," Angolano said.

They hope to be able to test this technology in Oklahoma soil sometime next year.