Exploring Europe's geothermal resources (CORDIS - EU)
EU-funded researchers are well on their way to developing new methods to 'image' geothermal reservoirs with greater accuracy than ever before.
Choosing where to drill is perhaps the most difficult decision to make in the geothermal industry. Thanks to painstaking research and development, the oil and gas industries make use of remarkable technologies that take advantage of recent advances in numerical models to reduce the drilling risk.
Some of these technologies apply to geothermal exploration. In the EU-funded project IMAGE (Integrated methods for advanced geothermal exploration), however, a new methodology is being developed to maximize the chance to encounter a geothermal reservoir that can be extracted for electricity generation.
IMAGE involves 11 leading geothermal research institutes and 8 industry partners from various European countries. Project results will contribute to the development of a reliable science-based exploration method for geothermal reservoirs.
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