Abstract
The assessment of the deep geothermal potential is an essential task during the early phases of any geothermal project. The well-known “Heat-In-Place” volumetric method is the most widely used technique to estimate the available stored heat and the recoverable heat fraction of deep geothermal reservoirs at the regional scale. Different commercial and open-source software packages have been used to date to estimate these parameters. However, these tools are either not freely available, can only consider the entire reservoir volume or a specific part as a single-voxel model, or are restricted to certain geographical areas. The 3DHIP-Calculator tool presented in this contribution is an open-source software designed for the assessment of the deep geothermal potential at the regional scale using the volumetric method based on a stochastic approach. The tool estimates the Heat-In-Place and recoverable thermal energy using 3D geological and 3D thermal voxel models as input data. The 3DHIP-Calculator includes an easy-to-use graphical user interface (GUI) for visualizing and exporting the results to files for further postprocessing, including GIS-based map generation. The use and functionalities of the 3DHIP-Calculator are demonstrated through a case study of the Reus-Valls sedimentary basin (NE, Spain).
Highlights
Deep geothermal energy exploration and exploitation activities have vigorously grown during the last decade worldwide [1,2,3]
A novel and free software called the ‘3DHIP-Calculator’ is presented here. This tool allows for estimating the geothermal potential of a reservoir using the volumetric Heat-In-Place (HIP) method, originally implemented by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) [5], combined with a Monte Carlo simulation approach [17] and using 3D geological and 3D thermal models based on a voxel format as inputs
The Reus-Valls Basin (RVB) case is a useful example of deep geothermal potential assessment at the regional scale, where the 3DHIP-Calculator can offer a first estimate of the spatial distribution of the deep geothermal resource based on the existing geological knowledge and its associated uncertainty
Summary
Deep geothermal energy exploration and exploitation activities have vigorously grown during the last decade worldwide [1,2,3]. A gap is identified between what the geoscience community working in geothermal energy would need (including geological surveys, universities, research institutes, or consulting companies) and what is currently offered by free commercial or open-source software packages to assess deep geothermal potential at the regional scale in three-dimensions and by stochastically using the volumetric method. A novel and free software called the ‘3DHIP-Calculator’ is presented here This tool allows for estimating the geothermal potential of a reservoir using the volumetric Heat-In-Place (HIP) method, originally implemented by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) [5], combined with a Monte Carlo simulation approach [17] and using 3D geological and 3D thermal models based on a voxel format as inputs. The RVB case is a useful example of deep geothermal potential assessment at the regional scale, where the 3DHIP-Calculator can offer a first estimate of the spatial distribution of the deep geothermal resource based on the existing geological knowledge and its associated uncertainty
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