Giving Oil Wells a Second Life: An Interview with Phil Cruver, CEO of Geo2Watts (Part 1)

The world is facing a dual challenge: retiring thousands of idle oil and gas wells while simultaneously building a resilient, zero-carbon power grid. Geo2Watts, a California-based clean technology innovator, offers a solution to both problems at once.

Oil & Gas Technology (OGT) spoke with Phil Cruver, Co-founder and CEO of Geo2Watts about the thermodynamics of Borehole Battery™ Platform (BBP), the economics of brownfield redevelopment, and how idle wells could soon power grid infrastructure.

OGT: Phil, thank you for taking the time to discuss Geo2Watts and the development of the BBP. The energy industry is facing two interconnected challenges: the need to accelerate decarbonization and the need to manage the growing demand for reliable, long-duration energy storage. Geo2Watts proposes an unconventional approach – transforming idle oil and gas wells into distributed energy storage infrastructure. Could you briefly introduce Geo2Watts, its mission, and the vision behind converting retired oil and gas wells into clean energy assets?

Phil: Geo2Watts is developing the Borehole Battery Platform, or BBP, a new form of distributed, dispatchable clean-energy infrastructure designed to repurpose idle and underperforming oil and gas wells. Our mission is straightforward: transform legacy oilfield infrastructure from a long-term liability into a productive clean-energy asset. Instead of abandoning wells that already have valuable subsurface infrastructure, surface access, electrical equipment, and grid connectivity, we see an opportunity to give those assets a second life.

The Borehole Battery itself is the underground thermal-energy-storage component. We use electricity to generate and store heat in the existing wellbore during periods when power is inexpensive or abundant, then the BBP converts that stored thermal energy back into zero-emission electricity when the grid or the site needs it most.

The larger vision is to create a scalable bridge between the traditional energy industry and the next generation of power infrastructure. Oil and gas operators have spent decades developing wells, substations, rights-of-way, operating expertise, and industrial sites. Geo2Watts is building a platform that can leverage much of that existing investment rather than starting from scratch.

If we are successful, thousands of idle wells could become part of a distributed network of dispatchable energy-storage assets, providing operators with new revenue opportunities while helping the grid integrate more renewable electricity. We believe that is a much faster and more capital-efficient pathway to clean-energy deployment than simply abandoning legacy infrastructure and rebuilding everything somewhere else.




From abandoned wells to energy infrastructure
OGT: The concept of turning idle oil and gas wells from an environmental liability into an energy asset is a very innovative approach. How did this idea originate? What characteristics of existing wells make them suitable for transformation into long-duration energy storage systems?

Phil: The idea originated from looking at idle oil and gas wells differently. Most people see them primarily as an abandonment obligation. We saw existing engineered infrastructure that had already been drilled, permitted, connected, and paid for and asked whether it could be repurposed for the energy system we are building next.

That led to the concept behind the BBP: use the existing wellbore as the foundation for underground thermal energy storage, then pair it with aboveground equipment that can charge the system with electricity and later convert that stored thermal energy back into zero-emission power.

Several characteristics make existing wells particularly attractive for long-duration energy storage (LDES). First, they provide deep, highly valuable subsurface infrastructure without the cost and disruption of drilling entirely new wells. Second, many oilfield sites already have roads, substations, electrical interconnections, operating crews, and industrial permits. Those are major advantages because grid interconnection and new infrastructure development can be among the biggest obstacles facing energy projects today.

The wells are also naturally distributed across producing regions. That creates the possibility of building storage close to existing loads and grid infrastructure rather than concentrating everything at a few massive facilities. In our view, that distributed architecture is one of the most important advantages of the platform.

There is also a compelling economic alignment. Operators ultimately face significant costs associated with managing and abandoning idle wells. If some of those wells can instead be converted into productive energy assets, they have the potential to generate revenue, extend the useful life of existing infrastructure, and support the transition to cleaner electricity.

Therefore, the innovation is not simply the storage technology itself. It is the idea of reusing the enormous physical and electrical infrastructure already created by the oil and gas industry and turning it into a distributed, dispatchable clean-energy platform. That is what we believe can make the concept scalable.

Brownfield advantage versus greenfield development
OGT: One of Geo2Watts’ key ideas is the integration of well decommissioning with energy infrastructure redevelopment. What practical, economic, and environmental advantages does repurposing existing wells and grid connections provide compared with building new clean energy storage facilities from scratch?

Phil: The biggest advantage is that we are not starting with a blank sheet of paper. An existing oilfield may already have the wellbores, roads, substations, transmission or distribution connections, operating infrastructure, rights-of-way, and an experienced workforce in place. Reusing those assets can eliminate a significant amount of the cost, permitting complexity, and development time associated with building a new energy-storage project from scratch.

Grid connectivity is particularly important. Today, obtaining a new interconnection can be one of the longest and most uncertain parts of developing a clean-energy project. Many oil and gas fields were built around substantial electrical loads, so they already have valuable grid infrastructure that can potentially be redeployed as operations decline. We view those existing connections almost as stranded energy infrastructure that can be given a second productive life.

Economically, the model also creates the possibility of linking two activities that are normally treated separately: well decommissioning and new energy development. Instead of spending capital solely to retire an asset, an operator may be able to incorporate that well into a redevelopment strategy that creates a new revenue-producing energy asset. That changes the conversation from simply managing a liability to potentially creating long-term value from infrastructure that has already been paid for.

There are environmental benefits as well. Repurposing existing industrial sites reduces the need for new land disturbance, new drilling, new rights-of-way, and entirely new electrical infrastructure. At the same time, the BBP is designed to store electricity and return it to the grid or an industrial customer as zero-emission power when it is most valuable.

Ultimately, we see this as a form of energy infrastructure recycling. The oil and gas industry has spent more than a century building an enormous network of subsurface and electrical assets. Geo2Watts’ vision is to reuse as much of that infrastructure as possible to create a distributed, dispatchable long-duration energy-storage network, rather than abandoning one energy system and then spending billions of dollars building another one from the ground up.




GridValue: redefining the economics of energy systems
OGT: In your publications, you highlight that the true value of an energy resource should not be measured only by the cost of electricity generation but by its overall contribution to the power system. Could you explain the GridValue™ concept? How does this approach change the way energy projects should be evaluated?

Phil: For decades, energy projects have largely been compared using metrics such as the Levelized Cost of Energy, or LCOE. That is useful because it tells you what it costs to produce a kilowatt-hour. But it does not necessarily tell you what that kilowatt-hour is worth to the power system. That is the thinking behind our GridValue concept asking a different question: not simply “What does this electricity cost to produce?” but “What is this electricity worth to the grid when and where it is delivered?”

That distinction is becoming increasingly important as the grid incorporates more intermittent renewable generation. A megawatt-hour produced when electricity is abundant may have relatively little value. That same megawatt-hour delivered during an evening peak, during a grid constraint, or at a location where additional capacity is urgently needed can be dramatically more valuable. So GridValue looks beyond energy cost and considers the broader system contribution of a resource: its timing value, capacity value, dispatchability, location value, reliability contribution, ancillary-service capability, and ability to use existing grid infrastructure. This is especially relevant to LDES. A storage project should not be evaluated as though it were simply another generator. Its purpose is to move electricity through time and to absorb power when it is inexpensive or otherwise underutilized and return that power when the grid values it most.

That is where we believe the BBP can be particularly compelling. Because BBP is designed as a distributed, dispatchable resource located at existing energy infrastructure, its value proposition potentially extends well beyond a simple calculation of cost per kilowatt-hour. It can combine energy arbitrage, capacity, resource adequacy, grid services, behind-the-meter reliability, and location-specific value.

Ultimately, we believe the industry needs to move from asking, “Who can produce the cheapest electron?” to “Who can deliver the most valuable electron?” That is the fundamental idea behind GridValue.

Edited by Evgeny Churilov, Induportals Media - Adapted by AI.

www.geo2watts.com