Geothermal energy is a promising alternative to effectively supply humanity’s energy needs. The continuous supply of thermal energy from the Earth's core can be utilized for heating greenhouses, spatial heating or generate electricity. Using geothermal energy has many advantages, because it is sustainable, installations emit little CO2, the energy is available 24/7, independent of oil price fluctuations and the installations are hardly noticeable.
Numerous feasibility studies and evidence from realized borehole drillings proof that the Dutch subsurface has enough potential to utilize Earth’s heat. Are you interested in using geothermal energy and do you want to know if suitable resources are present at your location? Or are you want to investigate the total geothermal potential in the Netherlands? ThermoGIS will support you!
What is ThermoGIS?
To stimulate the development of geothermal energy from natural resources in the subsurface in the Netherlands, TNO has recently developed a public web-based information system, called ThermoGIS. ThermoGIS provides depth, thickness, porosity and permeability maps of many potential aquifers in the Netherlands. In addition, a stochastic fast model based performance module is integrated in ThermoGIS that enables the user to automatically assess the generated power, expected flow rate, the Coefficient Of Performance (COP) and economic variables for any specific location.
Constraints?
The data that can be retrieved from ThermoGIS will give a first quick overview of the geothermal potential for any location. It has to be stressed though that the maps are based on regional geological interpretations. Therefore a more in-depth geological and economic feasibility study has to be carried out for future development. Furthermore, some aquifers may not be mapped in ThermoGIS due to insufficient data.
Each year new borehole data will become available. New data may give new insights on the reservoir properties and therefore affect current maps in ThermoGIS. ThermoGIS will be regularly updated when new data is processed.