Thanks for reminding me that these guys exist.
I had to read a little since I had not checked on their progress in a while.
First, I like the backgrounds and experience levels of the key personnel in the company. Many are oil and gas industry veterans with a good mix of skills - drilling, deviated well design, fracking, downhole monitoring sensors, etc.
DAS deployed downhole as their paper describes should give excellent information about conditions near the boreholes as they pressurize and depressurize the formations through the enhanced fracture networks. Induced seismicity is a common side effect of fluid injection and anyone who has watched USGS earthquake data for California has likely identified the geothermal fields by their frequent seismicity. Reducing the levels of induced seismicity related to geothermal energy production will decrease the likelihood of formation damage due to accumulated stresses in the production field. It sounds like they are able to tie specific stress/relaxation events to pressurization events so that is a very useful tool.
A lot of the earthquakes in the Permian Basin area are related to fluid injection. A DAS network could possibly mitigate some of that so a technology transfer back to the O&G industry may benefit all of us.
I agree with their goal of expanding geothermal energy production as an integral part of the power generation grid since, like they say, it is completely renewable. It does take advantage of downhole conditions in order to produce the energy and there is an opportunity to utilize existing boreholes as geothermal generation sites after the oil and gas becomes uneconomical so it could give new life to old fields and preserve jobs in the area since there will already be a trained workforce locally.
Pretty interesting. I lost track of these guys and now I see that they IPO'd a couple months ago. I expect that their business and their competition will both be increasing over the next few years at least.