Search

Geothermal

Sunday
28 Apr 2024

Canopus Drilling Secures EUR 3 Million Investment to Advance Geothermal Drilling Tech

28 Apr 2024  by thinkgeoenergy   

Announcement of investment by Underground Ventures on Canopus Drilling Solutions at the Global Geothermal Impact Summit (source: Impact City via LinkedIn)
Innovative drilling technology company Canopus Drilling Solutions has raised an additional investment of EUR 3 million led by the new investor Underground Ventures, and existing investors SHIFT and ENERGIIQ. The successful investment round was announced during the recent Global Geothermal Impact Summit in The Hague, Netherlands.

Leading this round is Underground Ventures, a new fund from Denmark dedicated to and specialized in geothermal energy investments. “This investment underlines our commitment to grow this sector that we see as essential to solving the energy crisis,” said Torsten Kolind, the fund manager.

Existing investors SHIFT and ENERGIIQare pleased to give their continued support to Canopus, expressing their ambition as impact investors to contribute to the growth of geothermal energy. Koen Hooning, partner at SHIFT Invest, adds that geothermal energy has the potential to contribute significantly to the energy transition, provided it is given sufficient resources and focus and innovative companies such as Canopus are supported.

The Steel Shot Drilling technology

Canopus Drilling has developed a novel drilling technology called Directional Steel Shot Drilling (DSSD), based on fast directional drilling using steel shot jet erosion. Using steel particles, DSSD allows for faster drilling and better steering, and is being seen as a cost-effective drilling method for geothermal district heating systems producing from medium-deep to deep reservoirs.

The technology present several advantages:

Does not need large mechanical forces at the bit

Can drill long distances (> 500 meters)

Can drill short high-angle turns into any direction

Has special bit designs producing smooth bore holes in any rock type at any depth

Can drill many multilaterals within a thin reservoir

Provides a high level of downhole autonomous directional control

Does not sacrifice rate of penetration for directional control, with ROP exceeding conventional drill rates

Pilot testing of the DSSD technology has already been done successfully at the site of Hagerbach Test Gallery (VersuchsStollen Hagerbach AG) in Switzerland as part of the DEPLOI the HEAT project. A total length 250 meters was drilled during the pilot test, showing that the addition of less than 0.5% by volume of 1-mm steel shot particles to the drilling mud improved rate of penetration by a factor of three.

Diederik Wawoe, CEO of Canopus Drilling, stated that the next step would be to test the technology in geothermal wells in Netherlands. The goal would be to enhance the productivity of these wells by drilling multilateral sections.

“We want to do more. We want to grow the company and we want to be full commercial. Therefore, we need to hire more people and we need to build more systems. That’s what this investment is going to help with,” said Wawoe.

More News

Loading……