RESULT

Enhancing Reservoirs in Urban development (RESULT)

Publieke samenvatting / Public summary

Aanleiding
For clean cities (mission horizon Europe) it is essential to provide heat from a sustainable, non-fossil fuel source. Geothermal energy is considered one of the most promising sustainable alternatives, and therefore, geothermal reservoirs are explored in close proximity to many urban areas with the intent of replacing existing fossil fuel fired heating. Low-enthalpy geothermal energy production is well suited for urban heating. However, in many urban areas the development of geothermal reservoirs is difficult - even if the subsurface reservoir conditions are relatively well known. This is related to various challenges pertinent to the urban setting, including: • Suboptimal reservoir quality is often encountered, which require alternative development options to make them commercially viable. • Concerns for urban communities regarding environmental impact and safety, which can among others limit the possible range of engineering options. • Spatial restrictions on drilling locations and the density of heat demand in urban areas means that the recovery of heat and the overall lifetime performance of the reservoir is paramount.

Doelstelling
In RESULT we will develop and test innovative well technology to lower the cost price, enhance lifetime and heat recovery of direct use geothermal heat production. This includes multi-lateral wells, and (progressively) adapting the well design by deploying the drill & learn paradigm originally developed in oil and gas.

Korte omschrijving
We will develop, test, and validate the developed methods and techniques jointly with strong research and seasoned industrial partners to reservoirs with extensive geographical extent and potential for urban geothermal development. This includes proof of concept and detailed design studies for the Rotliegend clastic reservoir (NL), Paleozoic carbonates of Carboniferous and Devonian age (IRE/NL) and volcanic reservoirs (ICE). A full-scale field demonstration of the (optimization) innovative multi-lateral geothermal well design and drill and learn approach will be performed in the Netherlands.

Resultaat
RESULT will: • Develop an innovative multilateral geothermal well design capable of enhancing flow performance by 30-100% for new doublet systems suited for different reservoir types, at limited additional costs. The well concept will be demonstrated in a full-scale field demonstration. • Provide robust, yet practical simulation approaches and fast models to calculate the techno-economic performance for the advanced well design, which can be used for benchmarks and further improvement of the well concept. • Adopt further possible improvements with complementary well concepts for flow and lifetime enhancement (e.g. jetting, underreaming etc). • Enhance the well concept by transferring and demonstrating optimization and drill and learn approaches, originally developed for oil and gas, to different geothermal reservoirs and stages of development. • Harness the developed methods and learnings in standard workflows and design practices for market uptake, and resource assessment.