Drilling to start on second well for geothermal heating project in Geneva, Switzerland
Schematic overview of Geothermie 2020 project, Geneva/ Switzerland (source: Geothermie 2020)
Alexander Richter
10 Oct 2019
The canton of Geneva and the Services Industriels de Genève (SIG) are now undertaking the drilling of the second exploration well under the GEothermie 2020 program in Geneva, Switzerland.
As reported by Geothermie Schweiz, the Swiss geothermal association, the canton of Geneva and the Services Industriels de Genève (SIG) are now undertaking the drilling of the second exploration well under the GEothermie 2020 program. This is just over a year since the first exploration well was drilled. The second will targets now a depth of 1,100 meters, which is deeper than the first well.
The geological conditions in the canton are promising and are being researched as part of the GEothermie 2020 program. The first exploration well in Satigny in 2018 was very successful, producing 33 centigrades water at a depth of 420 to 744 meters with a flow rate of more than 50 liters per second.
Although the second well in Lully is only a few kilometers to the south, the suspected fault zones in the limestone layers are slightly different. The second exploration well will determine if this location is equally favourable for geothermal use. This hole is to reach a depth of up to 1,100 meters.
To benefit from the experience of drilling the first well in Satigny, the same rig and teams will be used. The experiences from the second pilot project in the technical and administrative area will benefit future drilling efforts. The chosen drilling rig is significantly lighter than the equipment typically used for deeper wells and contributes to the fact that the drilling site ultimately hardly differs from a conventional construction site.
Geneva currently sources more than 90 percent of its energy needs from outside the canton, and the share of fossil fuels is around 75 percent. In order to bring drive down the share of fossil fuels, Geneva relies among other things on the local resource geothermal energy. The goal is to derive 20 percent of the heating energy in the canton of Geneva by geothermal energy by 2035.
Additional information about the GEothermie 2020 project can be found here.
Source: Geothermie Schweiz via our German partner website TiefeGeothermie
