Hot-Dry-Rock-Project Soultz

Country / Region: France; Soultz sous Forêts

Begin of project: April 1, 1987

End of project: September 1, 2008

Status of project: May 31, 2008

Drilling of the well GPK 4, 2004 Source: GEIE Exploitation Miniere de la Chaleur

Since 1987, the recovery of geothermal energy from deep and tight formations (granite) has been investigated in the European research project Soultz. The applied key technology is massive waterfracturing to create large artificial fractures.

An important milestone of the project was passed in 1997. A stable circulation for about four months was achieved between two wells at a depth of 3500 m. Hot water was produced with a rate of 25 kg/s and a temperature of 140°C.

Based on these promising results, the development of a deeper reservoir has been tackled. From 1999-2004, three wells (GPK2, GPK3, GPK4) were successfully drilled down to 5000 m where the temperature is about 200°C.

Location of the European HDR-Project Soultz-sous-Forêts Source: GEIE Exploitation Miniére de la Chaleur

All three wells were stimulated by massive waterfracs to create large fractures and to hydraulically link the wells. Additionally, chemical stimulations like acid injections (HCl, HF) were performed in all wells to improve the near wellbore regions.

A first circulation test at a depth of 5000 m was conducted in 2005 without downhole pumps, only using the buoyancy effect. Hot water with a flowrate of 15 l/s was produced from two wells, cooled, and re-injected into the injection well (GPK3) in a stable closed loop.

At present, the electricity production of 1,5 MW is envisaged by circulating water with a flowrate of about 30 l/s between two of the three wells (GPK2 and GPK3). A power plant with this capacity has been installed and will be launched in summer 2008. After successful commencement of operation the capacity of the pilot plant shall be increased by including the third well (GPK4) into the circulation.

HDR/EGS Pilot Plant in Soultz Source: GEIE Exploitation Miniére de la Chaleur

BGR contributes to the project in scientific and technical aspects. In the current project phase (2004-2008), one scientist and one engineer of BGR work for the project on site. The dominant field of BGR has been “Hydraulics”: Planning, performing and interpreting of hydraulic tests and stimulation operations. Further, BGR is responsible for data acquisition, data management and takes responsibility for logging operations in Soultz.

The activities in Soultz are coordinated by the GEIE EMC (Groupement Européen d’Intérêt Economique “Exploitation Minière de la Chaleur”) a consortium of German and French companies. The project is funded by EU, French and German funding agencies (ADEME and BMU).

Funding:

European Union (EU);
Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWA) (until 2002);
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) (until 2002)

Projectphase 2001-2005:

• Grant No. (BMU): 0327097
• Grant No.(EU): ENK5-CT-2000-0031

Project phase 2004-2008:

• Grant No. (BMU): 032 9950A
• Grant No. (EU): SES6-CT-2003-502706-BGR

Project contributions:

• Electricity Production from Hot Rocks
• Erfolgreicher Langzeit-Zirkulationstest im europäischen Hot-Dry-Rock-Versuchsfeld Soultz-sous-Forêts
• Geothermics: Hot-Dry-Rock-Project Soultz - Photo Gallery
• Hydraulic and micro-seismic results of a massive stimulation test at 5 km depth at the european Hot-Dry-Rock test site Soultz, France

Literature:

• Hettkamp, T., Baumgärtner, J., Baria, R., Gerard, A., Gandy, T., Teza, D., 2004. Electricity Production from Hot Rocks, The European Hot Dry Rock Research Project at Soultz-sous-Forets. Proceedings of the 29th Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir engineering, Stanford University, California (PDF, 2 MB).

• Tischner, T., Pfender, M., Teza, D. (2006): Hot Dry Rock Projekt Soultz: Erste Phase der Erstellung einer wissenschaftlichen Pilotanlage. Abschlussbericht zum BMU-Vorhaben 0327097, 85 S. (PDF, 7 MB)

• Tischner, T., Schindler, M., Jung, R., Nami, P. (2007): HDR project Soultz: Hydraulic and seismic observations during stimulation of the 3 deep wells by massive water injections. PROCEEDINGS, Thirty-Second Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, January 22-24. (PDF, 667 KB)

Partner:

• Institut für Geowissenschaftliche Gemeinschaftsaufgaben, Hannover (GGA)
• European Economic Interest Grouping E.E.I.G. “Heat Mining” (Soultz)
• Bureau des Recherches Géologiques et Miniéres, Orléans (BRGM)
• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris (CNRS)
• MeSy Geo-Meßsysteme GmbH, Bochum (MeSy)
• GTC-Kappelmeyer GmbH, Karlsruhe (GTC)
• Deep Heat Mining, Switzerland (DHM)
• Institute for Energy Technology, Norway (IFE)