Geothermal project in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany secures €44M federal funding
Geopfalz is awarded federal funding for the AGENS project in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany (source: Geopfalz)
Carlo Cariaga
5 Jun 2024
The AGENS project, aiming to demonstrate viability of deep geothermal in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, is set to receive EUR 44.4 million in federal funding.
Federal funding amounting to EUR 44.4 million over a project duration of five years has been approved for the joint project AGENS or “Demonstration of an adaptive, multilateral reservoir exploration for geothermal energy for seismicity and cost mitigation in the Upper Rhine Graben.”
Jörg Uhde of Geopfalz will be presenting the further financing of the project at the IGC Invest Geothermal Conference, set to take place on 25-25 June 2024 in Frankfurt, Germany.
The main objective of the proposed AGENS pilot and demonstration project is to implement an innovative strategy for the development of a typical geothermal reservoir in the Upper Rhine Graben in the Speyer and Schifferstadt region in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It aims to demonstrate a pioneering exploration technique in which several lateral wells are drilling from a main well, thus developing a geomechanically and hydraulically optimized reservoir with increased productivity and reduced risk of induced seismicity. The economic viability, as well as public acceptance, of such projects will be evaluated.
The funding body is the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) on the basis of a decision by the German Bundestag. Geopfalz GmbH & Co KG (geopfalz), a subsidiary of Stadtwerke Speyer GmbH and the city of Schifferstadt, will act as the network coordinator for the approval of the sub-project.
Geopfalz will receive a proportionate grant of around EUR 24.3 million as the network coordinator for the approval of the sub-project “Deposit exploration and evaluation with accompanying communication and profitability analysis”.
In this sub-project, Geopfalz will create the first deep geothermal doublet, a basic building block for geothermal heat supply, for the inter-municipal geothermal project “Rhein-Pfalz”. The doublet will have two main boreholes and a total of four lateral boreholes.
The remaining funding of around EUR 20.1 million will go to the other project partners.
The determination of the drilling targets and the geometry of the boreholes is determined by geological, geomechanical, and production-technical aspects and also takes into account the results of the seismic risk assessment as an integral component. An evaluation of this doublet, accompanied by intensive monitoring, is intended to verify that the exploration and monitoring concept implemented in the project can keep seismicity at the planned minimum level and at the same time achieve the flow rates necessary for economic operation.
The AGENS project is an interdisciplinary joint project involving geopfalz, the Institute for Geothermal Resource Management at ITB gGmbH, the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University of Frankfurt am Main, the Rhineland-Palatinate Technical University of Kaiserslautern-Landau, the Ruhr University Bochum, geomecon GmbH and the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg.
Furthermore, Geo-Energie Suisse AG is involved in the AGENS project as an associated partner and will also carry out its own research work, financed by the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (BFE).
In addition to the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK), the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is supporting the joint research project AGENS as part of the supplementary project LISAGENS with an additional funding volume of approximately 1.8 million euros, which addresses questions of basic research.
