The Rhenohercynic Basin — a hydrothermal reservoir for North Rhine-Westphalia and Northwest Europe?

Climate-neutral heat generation can be achieved through the use of hydrothermal deep geothermal 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 Rhenohercynic Basin. A key objective of the project is the cross-border characterisation of the subcarbon coal lime group (and following the Devonian mass limestone) in Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, in order to facilitate the location search for future geothermal power plants and to support CO2-neutral heat utilisation in NWE. By collecting and evaluating the common data treasure and the transnational collection of new data from drilling and seismic campaigns, the depth, thickness, structure and facies of this hydrothermal reservoir are to be characterised and the previously unknown deep geothermal potentials of the carbonate rocks in the rhenohercynic basin are determined.