| Title | From Vision to Reality: Unlocking the Geothermal Potential |
|---|---|
| Authors | Neil FARQUHARSON, Daniel BENDIAS, Ulrich STEINER, Achim SCHUBERT |
| Year | 2020 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | Geothermal, Heat Demand, Oil and Gas Workflow, Crossover, Upscaling, Play-based Exploration |
| Abstract | The need for cities to transition from fossil fuel-based energy to renewables is a challenging topic at the forefront of modern scientific, engineering and political agendas. The city of Munich together with a number of surrounding communities, located in the favorable geological setting of the South German Molasse Basin, have been realizing geothermal projects as part of an energy transition since the turn of the century. The combination of a significant heat demand, a positive political framework and a strong, trustful and long-term developer – planner partnership are viewed as some of the reasons for success. This has established geothermal know-how and allowed for regional development of the geothermal sector over the last two decades unseen anywhere else in Germany. The Munich based consultancy ERDWERK has been an active driver and leader in the geothermal sector since the early days of geothermal development in the Molasse basin in 2002 and has become a major player for low to medium enthalpy geothermal developments in Germany and Europe. Skills and technology have been successfully incorporated from E&P and adapted to geothermal projects, making the Greater Munich area a knowledge center of geothermal best practice and know-how. The general absence of exploration wells for geothermal projects mean there is little opportunity to build exploration data sets for play definition and to test technologies. However, the large number of successful wells drilled in the Molasse Basin have allowed an iterative development of employed technologies and methodologies. Data and knowledge from existing wells act as a valuable exploration dataset for new projects. Today, in order to meet project developer expectations, (minimized exploration risk, cost effective low risk drilling, minimal and managed seismic risk, project realization in urban areas) HSE standards and technology from the E&P sector are implemented. This paper analyzes the development of the geothermal sector in the Munich region over the last 15+ years. It showcases what many cities and Countries need to be doing in the coming decade in order to successfully develop the geothermal energy sector in their region. |