Soutenir l’expansion de l'énergie géothermique profonde en Europe
Issues and needs
North-West Europe must reduce its CO2 emissions, a major source of which is the production of electricity and heat by means of fossil fuels. These could mostly be replaced by using deep geothermal energy (DGE) instead. However, exploration of DGE in most parts of North-West Europe requires specific expertise and technologies due to the complex geological conditions encountered in the trans-border areas between Germany, France, Netherlands and Belgium
The objective of DGE-ROLLOUT is to produce energy and reduce CO2 emissions by replacing fossil fuels with DGE in North-West Europe for high temperature supply. This will be achieved through mapping and networking, the implementation of innovative strategies to support decision-making and exploration, and by optimising production.
DGE-Rollout project logo.
© DGE-Rollout
Expected results
This optimisation will be tested for two pilot sites (Balmatt, Belgium and Bochum, Germany), using high temperature heat pumps, thermal storage and new cascade heat production schemes. This should reduce CO2 by 25,000 t/year. By building other sites in Germany, France, Belgium and the Netherlands, a level of 160,000 t/year could be reached by 2022. Ten years after the end of the project, 1,600,000 t/year should be achieved, with the possibility of reaching 7,000,000 t/year in the long term.
Other activities will aim to develop innovative, reliable, less expensive, and risk-minimising support for decision-making and exploration strategies, as well as a 3D atlas representing the geological complexity, all of which will lay foundations for using DGE. The implementation of DGE tools and the extent to which they increase social acceptance will be assessed and the legal conditions and business models for companies will be analysed. An "NWE-DGE" network (deep geothermal energy in North-West Europe) will be established to consolidate results and investments after the end of the project.
Site des futurs forages de Géothermie Profonde pour suppléer la production d’électricité par lignite de la centrale de Weiweiler, Allemagne (Weisweiler, 2019).
© BRGM - C. Dezayes
BRGM's role
BRGM's contribution will mainly focus on studying the potential for deep geothermal energy in the Carboniferous limestone of the Hauts de France region.
Partners
- Geologischer Dienst NRW
- DMT GmbH & Co. KGt
- EBN B.V.
- Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique
- International Geothermal Centre, Hochschule Bochum
- RWE Power AG
- TNO
- Technische Universität Darmstadt
- VITO
- BRGM