Central Europe: Great Untapped Geothermal Potential of the Dráva Basin

New methods of geothermal potential assessment in the Pannonian basin (Cambridge Core)

Geological cross section of the Dráva basin (Rotár-Szalkai et al., 2018).

The Pannonian basin in Central Europe is well known for its rich geothermal resources. Although geothermal energy has been utilised, mainly for direct use purposes, for a long time, there are still a lot of untapped resources.

This paper presents novel methods for outlining and assessing the theoretical and technical potential of partly still unknown geothermal reservoirs, based on a case study from the Dráva basin, one of the sub-basins of the Pannonian basin along the Hungarian–Croatian border.

The presented methods include reservoir delineation based on combining geological bounding surfaces of the Upper Pannonian basin-fill units with a set of isotherms deriving from a conductive geothermal model.

The geothermal potential of each identified reservoir was calculated by a Monte Carlo method, which was considered as being represented by the heat content of the fluids stored in the effective pore space (‘moveable fluid’).

The results underline the great untapped geothermal potential of the Dráva basin, especially that of the reservoir storing thermal water of 50–75°C, which has the largest volume and the greatest stored heat content.

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New methods of geothermal potential assessment in the Pannonian basin by Annamária Nádor, László Sebess-Zilahi, Ágnes Rotár-Szalkai, Ágnes Gulyás, Tamara Markovic. Part of: Netherlands Journal of Geosciences, Volume 98 - Geothermal Energy. Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2020, e10.