The Rhenohercyn Basin – a hydrothermal reservoir for North Rhine-Westphalia and Northwest Europe?

Climate-neutral heat generation can be achieved by using hydrothermal deep geothermal energy. The transnational project “Roll-out of Deep Geothermal Energy in North-West Europe” (DGE-ROLLOUT) investigates one of the most promising deep geothermal reservoirs in Northwest Europe (NWE), the Rhenohercyn Basin. A key objective of the project is the cross-border characterisation of the sub-carbon coal lime group (and following the Devonian mass limescales) in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands in order to facilitate the search for future geothermal power plants and to support CO2-neutral heat utilisation in NWE. The collection and evaluation of the common data collection and the transnational collection of new data from drilling and seismic campaigns are intended to characterise the depth, thickness, structure and facies of this hydrothermal reservoir and to determine the previously unknown deep geothermal potentials of carbonate rocks in the rhenohercynic basin.