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Energy Systems and Technologies for the Coming Century ...

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to constrain <strong>the</strong> evaluation. In addition to <strong>the</strong>se projects, initial investigationsare currently underway at a number of places. The great interest is alsoreflected by <strong>the</strong> large number of license applications received by <strong>the</strong> Danish<strong>Energy</strong> Agency.Geological backgroundPotential reservoirsThe Danish subsurface is composed of five major structural units – <strong>the</strong>Danish Basin, <strong>the</strong> Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone, <strong>the</strong> Skagerrak-KattegatPlat<strong>for</strong>m, <strong>the</strong> Ringkøbing-Fyn High <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> North German Basin – whichexert <strong>the</strong> overall control on <strong>the</strong> geo<strong>the</strong>rmal prospectivity, as <strong>the</strong>y essentiallydetermine <strong>the</strong> heat flow, distribution, thickness, facies types <strong>and</strong> burialdepths of <strong>the</strong> potential reservoirs (Fig. 1). The 1–10 km thick Mesozoicsuccession has been <strong>the</strong> target of hydrocarbon exploration <strong>for</strong> c. 80 years,<strong>and</strong> is relatively well-known from c. 70 deep onshore wells <strong>and</strong> seismic dataacquired over many years. These data, despite variable quality <strong>and</strong>coverage, show that <strong>the</strong> most promising geo<strong>the</strong>rmal reservoirs occur within<strong>the</strong> Triassic–Lower Cretaceous succession in <strong>the</strong> Danish <strong>and</strong> North GermanBasins. The two basins are separated by <strong>the</strong> elevated basement blocks of<strong>the</strong> Ringkøbing-Fyn High with a low geo<strong>the</strong>rmal potential. Five <strong>for</strong>mationswith a regional potential are identified including <strong>the</strong> Triassic BunterS<strong>and</strong>stone <strong>and</strong> Skagerrak Formations, <strong>the</strong> Upper Triassic–Lower JurassicGassum Formation, <strong>the</strong> Middle Jurassic Haldager S<strong>and</strong> Formation <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong>Upper Jurassic–Lower Cretaceous Frederikshavn Formation (Fig. 1). Theycontain several porous <strong>and</strong> water bearing s<strong>and</strong>stone layers/aquifers in <strong>the</strong>economic interval 800–3000 m below <strong>the</strong> surface with <strong>for</strong>mationtemperatures from 25–90°C, <strong>and</strong> both basins have a great geo<strong>the</strong>rmalpotential (Fig.1) (Mathiesen et al., 2009). In addition Rotliegende s<strong>and</strong>stonesmay be prospective along <strong>the</strong> nor<strong>the</strong>rn rim of <strong>the</strong> German Basin <strong>and</strong> lowerJurassic <strong>and</strong> lower Cretaceous s<strong>and</strong>stones seems prospective in easternSjæll<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>the</strong> Øresund region.The geo<strong>the</strong>rmal resource <strong>and</strong> reserveEstimates of <strong>the</strong> geo<strong>the</strong>rmal resource may be based on two principalapproaches. The conservative approach calculates <strong>the</strong> amount of heatpresent in <strong>the</strong> reservoir brine <strong>and</strong> was used in regional assessments toproduce comparable values of large areas with very variable <strong>and</strong> complexgeology (Hurter & Haenel 2002; Mathiesen et al. 2009). This approachhowever, underestimates <strong>the</strong> amount of heat available <strong>for</strong> a geo<strong>the</strong>rmalplant, as heat stored in <strong>the</strong> reservoir rock matrix <strong>and</strong> heat from <strong>the</strong> adjacentrock units will be supplied to <strong>the</strong> geo<strong>the</strong>rmal water increasing <strong>the</strong> lifetime of ageo<strong>the</strong>rmal reservoir considerably (Magtengaard & Mahler 2010). Thegeo<strong>the</strong>rmal reserve in a given prospect is estimated as <strong>the</strong> amount ofproducible heat at <strong>the</strong> current economic regime.Critical geological parametersThe principal requirement <strong>for</strong> successful geo<strong>the</strong>rmal exploration is <strong>the</strong>presence of a warm, thick, continuous, water-bearing, porous <strong>and</strong> permeablereservoir buried at a suitable depth. Thus burial depth, temperature,4Risø International <strong>Energy</strong> Conference 2011 Proceedings Page 130

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