Evaluation and demonstration of advanced geothermal energy utilization – KAUST research project – in support of KSA's Ministry of Energy to bring geothermal energy as a renewable energy source to Saudi Arabia.

+ cross-disciplinary integration of KAUST expertise & innovative technologies
+ a well doublet targeting rift basin sediments down to granite basement to demonstrate the feasibility of geothermal heat extraction for multiple purposes
+ develop an optimized cascaded heat extraction process 
+ de-risk and help optimize planned economic geothermal projects in KSA (namely under the patronage of MoE) 
+ establish a long-term downhole observatory for research purposes related to fluid flow, heat flow, seismic and acoustic noise monitoring and more
+ on KAUST campus
+ unique research potential for individual technologies (subsurface and on the surface) and integration

Collaborators

Thomas Finkbeiner, Volker Vahrenkamp, Martin Mai, Abdulkader Afifi, Guillaume Baby, Kim Chor Ng, Bassam Dally, Shehab Ahmed, Hussein Hoteit, Zhiping Lai and Matthew Early.