Advanced reservoir simulators usually work on comprehensive datasets that accurately define many physical properties of geological formations. It is important to emphasize that most of the advanced reservoir simulators typically generate output at the depth of the production liner, and the flow within the wellbore is not considered. The article presents a simple tool for determining fluids'...
The transition towards renewable energy is an urgent matter. Heating and cooling of buildings contributes substantially to the emission of greenhouse gasses today. Geothermal energy provides a way to change that. Utilizing the geological layers of the underground, either near the surface or deep into the ground, the underground acts a huge thermal battery that provides a balance between...
The growing world population and the escalating effects of climate change have increased the need for sustainable food security and reliable energy solutions. Geothermal energy, a renewable and versatile resource, offers continuous availability and stability throughout the year, regardless of weather conditions. It is both environmentally friendly and economically feasible, making it a...
Geothermal fluids are often loaded with mineral and organic particles in suspension, various additives, microorganisms, heavy metals, etc. These compounds often result in significant problems on the sustainability of production and the maintenance of injectivity.
As the migration and deposit of fines concern numerous industrial applications, the physics of colloidal particles in porous media...
Deep geothermal coaxial closed wells offer potential advantages over conventional geothermal applications (i.e., independence from the geology, no risk of induced seismicity, choice of heat transfer fluid etc.), and interest in them has grown in recent years due to technological advantages (e.g., drilling processes, energy conversion systems). However, concerns, have been raised about their...
The New Geothermal Energy Plant at University of Stavanger, now in its first year of operation, significantly enhances sustainable energy production on campus. With targets set for substantial reductions in CO2 emissions and operational costs of thermal energy production, this presentation will cover the plant’s foundational design principles and research goals. A key design choice involves...
The interpretation of well tests or long-term observations of wellhead parameters is an extremely valuable tool in the correct assessment of the hydraulic capacity of geothermal reservoir. Despite using the same relationships describing mechanisms of water flow as in the case of freshwater or oil, an important factor that introduces a certain correction to the interpretation of pumping data in...
Lack of energy access is affecting over 660 million people in Africa (Ambole et al.,2021; IEA,2022) limiting health, education, and economic opportunities, particularly in rural areas (Adenle,2020). The Geothermal Village (GV) concept (Varet et al.,2014), envisions community-driven geothermal resource (GR) management directly benefiting local populations. GV emphasizes energy justice, equity,...
European and African institutions initiated in 2020 the Long-term Europe-Africa Partnership for Renewable Energies (LEAP-RE). In LEAP-RE the Geothermal Atlas for Africa (GAA) has been developed, aimed at the visualization of geothermal energy potential of the African countries, and based on a comprehensive compilation of available data, subsurface models jointly with many key R&D and...
Norway lacks oversight of ground-source thermal energy in its national energy budget, largely due to (a) the absence of regulatory measures for automatic heat extraction reporting and (b) undervaluing this heat, since it is free and untaxed. Its contribution to the national energy stability is therefore overlooked. Additionally, since energy wells are largely invisible with minimal areal...
The Lumpfit program has been used for modeling of pressure response data from low-temperature geothermal reservoirs in Iceland and worldwide. It is based on a lumped parameter method that simulates the pressure response of a reservoir by using a small number of linearly connected homogenous volumes and a single source of production. The method has been successful in predicting pressure changes...
Mineral scaling is a well-known problem in geothermal applications often caused by changes in the temperature of the fluid while moving to the surafce and/or by alterations in its composition and chemistry. If no precautions are taken, geothermal power plant components (wells, pipes, equipment) can be subject to the formation of deposits. More precisely, precipitation may disturb flow regimes,...
Mineral scale deposits and other amorphous solids generated by geothermal installations can contain elevated activities of Naturally Occurring Radionuclides (NORs) originating from 238U and 232Th and their progeny (e.g., 226/228Ra, 210Pb, and 210Po) in the reservoir rocks. The NORs-containing deposits can be classified as Naturally...
This study focuses on the monitoring of high-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage (HT-ATES) systems, where geothermal fluids undergo cyclic injection and production. It evaluates the effectiveness and sensitivity of the Full-Waveform Inversion (FWI) technique in mapping the anticipated changes within the reservoir using forward modeling. The feasibility study is applied to the DeepStor...
Monitoring the condition of geothermal production and facilities is an essential element in geothermal energy production systems for maintaining their reliability and cost-efficient operations. Challenges such as scaling, corrosion, erosion, and injectivity decline can significantly affect the operational expenditure (OPEX) of geothermal plants. Sensors installed during the operational phase...
Many geothermal sites are situated in low-permeable rock and strongly influenced by the presence and behaviour of fractures. Mathematical models must therefore account accurately for the fractures and their interplay with the physical processes at play. Modelling and simulating said interplay comes with certain challenges related to the fractures’ high aspect ratio and strong material...
Over the past decades, more than 30 relatively deep boreholes were drilled onshore in Norway, providing valuable insights into the subsurface thermal pattern across different regions. Thermal logging from these boreholes revealed significant variations in temperature, reflecting the diverse geological and tectonic characteristics of the country.
On the Svalbard archipelago, which exhibits...
This study is part of the Horizon Europe-funded PUSH-IT project, which aims to develop and promote sustainable heating and cooling technologies through innovative underground thermal energy storage systems. As part of this project, an open-source code has been developed to conduct techno-economic modeling for Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES), Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES), and...
Due to the ongoing climate crisis, development of geothermal energy technologies will need to increase to support an energy transition. Community engagement around geothermal energy is an important facet of sectoral development. Geothermal project developers will need to conduct engagement to successfully develop projects which, depending on the approach adopted, could facilitate wider...
In June 2024, the European Research project FlexGeo has started. The project aims to develop solutions for innovative geothermal energy system designs to maximize system performance and flexibility. The key innovation is the development and operation of a modular rev. 200 kWel high-temperature heat pump / Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) unit at a real district heating. The first-time...
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Heating and cooling (H&C) in buildings and industry account for half of the EU's energy consumption, primarily from fossil fuels. Across all energy carriers, renewable energy sources (RES) provide 18% of the primary energy supply for HC in the EU-27. The IEA forecasts that the global share of RES in heat consumption will increase from 11% in 2020 to 13% in 2026. While the EU has set ambitious...
The Geothermal Village project addresses community exploitation of geothermal resources, which in Africa are commonly found along the East African Rift System and typically off-grid (Varet et al. 2014). The H2020 LEAP-RE program (Grant Agreement 963530) co-funds feasibility studies at 4 sites now ready for demo financing. This abstract focuses on the resources.
At Era Boru, Ethiopia, in...
This study investigates the impact of uncertainties in fracture and matrix parameters on coupled heat transfer and phase transport within fractured thermal aquifers through a numerical simulation. First, 1000 multi-physics simulations are performed using a hybrid-dimension (i.e., two dimensional matrix elements and one dimensional fracture elements) finite elements package COMSOL...
Geothermal energy is a key renewable resource driving the shift to a zero-emissions global energy industry thanks to its reliable baseload power. While geothermal resources are abundant and unaffected by climate, utilizing them efficiently still requires a great deal of technological development for their expanded technical and economic feasibility at a larger scale. eDrilling has been...
