The borehole that a team from RWE Power is currently drilling in front of the Weisweiler power plant will be around 100 meters deep. Its purpose is to explore the subsurface and prepare for the search for heat from great depths, i.e. geothermal energy.
The borehole is part of the international Interreg research project DGE-ROLLOUT (Roll-out of Deep Geothermal Energy in North-West Europe), which is coordinated by the Geological Survey of North Rhine-Westphalia. At the beginning of next year, a second exploratory borehole is to be drilled next door to a depth of around 500 meters.
"Hot water from the depths is used to supply heat in many European cities and can also become an alternative, climate-friendly source of heat in NRW. Aachen has been benefiting from this indigenous energy source for heating buildings since Roman times. With this project, we want to demonstrate the modern contribution of geothermal energy to municipal heat planning and collect the data we need on the way to the heat transition in the southern Rhineland," says Prof. Rolf Bracke, Head of the Fraunhofer IEG.
On the basis of the two boreholes, a deep exploratory borehole could later be drilled under the direction of Fraunhofer IEG to explore for thermal water. Current studies by the Fraunhofer IEG show that deep geothermal energy could cover at least a quarter of Germany's current heating requirements. The geothermal potential of NRW is particularly large. Geological exploration such as drilling and seismic measurements are essential for development.
