This project has been financed by the "Zukunftsinvestitionsprogramm" of the German Federal Environment Ministry,
and by the EC in frame of the 'European Deep Geothermal Energy Programme', Soultz-sous-Forêts.
Project Homepage: www.soultz.net
Reference
Grecksch, G.; Jung, R.; Tischner, T. & Weidler, R. (2003): Hydraulic fracturing at the European HDR test site Soultz-sous-Forêts (France) - a conceptual model . Proceedings European Geothermal Conference, Szeged, Hungary, May 2003
Project summary
The major objectives of the contribution of the GGA Institute to the Soultz HDR project are the evolution of conceptual models for hydraulic fracturing and the further development of realistic quantitative models of the underground heat exchanger based on thermophysical and hydraulic data. This offers the possibility to develop more efficient stimulation techniques and to obtain reliable predictions about the long-term behaviour of the geothermal reservoir system. The results concerning reservoir performance should be transferable to other sites which is important for the dimensioning of future commercial HDR plants. The main working tasks comprise:
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Validation, adaption and generalization of conceptional models describing the stimulation process of the Soultz hydrogeothermal system in order to contribute to the development of more efficient stimulation techniques.
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Numerical modelling of the geothermal reservoir in order to validate the conceptual models and to predict the long-term behaviour of the reservoir.
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Temperature logs in the Soultz boreholes and laboratory tests are performed in order to determine the
thermophysical rock properties for the numerical simulation.
Hydraulic and seismic observations revealed indications for fault dominated deep geothermal reservoir in Soultz (depth around 5 km, Temperature 200°C). The conceptual model of hydraulic fracturing (water-frac) includes an artificial fracture which created within a natural fault zone. The tensile fracture opens in direction of the minimum horizontal stress.