Shuvajit Bhattacharya, Kenneth Wisian, Bissett Young, Malcolm Ross, Mohamed Khaled, Rama Chandrudu Arasada, Qiqi Wang, David Chapman, Aysegul Turan

Presidio County of the Trans-Pecos region of Texas has substantial, undeveloped geothermal resources. We conduct a thorough, multi-scale characterization of geothermal resources and assess techno-economics for power generation and direct use facilities. We integrate surface geology, high-resolution gravity, borehole geophysical logs, and core data for subsurface characterization and carry out detailed techno-economics, considering enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) and closed-loop geothermal systems (CLGS) technologies. Techno-economic analysis shows that the geothermal resource development in Presidio County could be economically viable for a wide range of project scenarios for power generation and direct use, with a project lifetime of 20-30 years. However, the economic outlook of geothermal project developments in the study area are varied and range from poor to excellent, depending on the target location, reservoir depth, temperature, completion technologies, and local demand for utilization.

The Border region of the study area has the best quality geothermal resources. The geothermal gradient in the Border region is significantly high (~47°C/km), indicating a shallow drilling depth to reach a target temperature. The Interior Region has a cooler geothermal gradient of ~29°C/km. Not much information is available from the Big Bend Region, regarding the deep geothermal potential. New higher resolution geophysical surveys and drilling new wells can help improve our understanding of the local geology and available geothermal resources in the study area.