Nicolas Espinoza

The energy industry is transitioning towards a future with lower carbon footprint. Many countries
and companies have pledged to achieve zero-greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Three major
areas that can contribute to these objectives while providing energy security are (1) natural gas
from unconventional formations, (2) carbon capture utilization and storage, and (2) deep
geothermal energy. This talk will present recent advances in these three areas focused on studies
done by the presenter. The contents help understand how to to securely develop unconventional
formations, reduce risks in carbon dioxide geological utilization and storage, and deploy safely and
effectively geothermal energy. Examples include (1) optimizing fracture geometry, reducing sharp
decline rates and enabling enhanced recovery for unconventionals, (2) maintaining high injection
rates, optimizing pore space use, and averting fault reactivation or losing seal integrity for carbon
geological storage, and last, lowering uncertainties and improving design of multistage hydraulic
fracture and closed loop wells, maximizing power output, and limiting potential induced
seismicity for geothermal energy. Last the presentation will include the presenter’s experience on
sharing freely geomechanics concepts and courses through github and youtube for the worldwide
geomechanics community.