Arverne Geothermal plans heating project, Northern Alsace

Drilling rig of Arverne Drilling on a winter day (source: company)

Alexander Richter 24 Apr 2021

Geothermal development company Arverne Geothermal, based in Bischwiller in Alsace/ France, has filed for an exclusive geothermal exploration permit based on plans to provide businesses and residents of Alsace with geothermal heat in the northern part of the Alsace in France.

Brossollet, founding president of Arverne Geothermal, a company of Arverne group founded in October 2020 and based in Bischwiller, makes sure to clarify that the company is targeting a low and medium sized geothermal project not comparable to the project in Vendenheim in the same region that has been targeting a depth of 5,000 meters.  If we had to find an equivalent, it would rather be the geothermal heat plant of Rittershoffen.

It was Arverne Drilling (established in 1958 and known until 2015 under the name Cofor), the sister company of Averne Geothermal, which drilled the two wells of the Rittershoffen geothermal heat plant which supplies the Roquette company with hot water from Beinheim.

Create an ecosystem and jobs locally

The goal of Arverne Geothermal, which has been working for four years on its geothermal energy plans on a perimeter from Niederbonn-les-Bains to Betschdorf  in the Alsace region in France, is to drill wells to a maximum depth of 2,500 meters to find and tap the hot water in the basement, the temperature of which varies from 30 to 130 degrees Celsius.

“These temperature ranges do not allow us to generate electricity. Which is not the intention of the company. We want to create an ecosystem, value, jobs in a region, ”insists Pierre Brossollet.

With the heat produced, Arverne Geothermal intends to supply homes through heating networks, as well as companies currently connected to gas or a new economic fabric made up of investors attracted by this energy. Arverne Geothermal will take care of promoting its energy to agribusiness players (the agricultural world,
food, industry), recreation (spa) and residents, as well.

“The idea is to replace this gas-related heat with green and local energy “, continues the president.

Helping companies to decarbonise

As heat losses depend on the distance traveled and in order to reduce the costs of the initial heating network, future subscribers should ideally be located a few kilometers from the future power plant.

“We will have to respect the location of homes and businesses. We are not going to recreate a city next to the well, ”says Pierre Brossollet.

To carry out his project, Arverne Georthermal filed for an exclusive research permit aimed at “confirming the resource and quantifying it within the perimeter defined by [its] technical teams in December 2020”, specifies Pierre Brossollet.

It further intends to supply heat to others in northern Alsace on neighboring perimeters to create a large-scale heating network, also eyeing other regions of France. Because when several plants are built and networked, users further away from heat sources will be able to connect to the network.

The first in a series of permits

With its project, the Bischwiller company anticipates the fact that “today, economic players are aware of the need to change things and decarbonize. For those who do not, we know that French regulations and European Union will be more and more restrictive ”, he continues.

In order to be competitive, “we will offer a fixed price over time so that entrepreneurs can control their dedicated budget and a carbon footprint that is almost zero, “announces Pierre Brossollet, who considers the price of energy in his globally, that is to say by including the penalties linked to too heavy a carbon footprint or financial incentives to reduce it.

As for the fear of possible earthquakes, Pierre Brossollet states that this is normal in view of recent Alsatian news on seismic events, we reported. But he wishes to reassure inhabitants by indicating that the techniques used will be different from those used by the developer in Vendenheim and the depth of the wells planned will be less than that of Vendenheim. “We control the process, since we have done it for decades in the oil industry. Northern Alsace contains wells which were made without having never experienced this type of problem. The risk of an earthquake occurs during drilling deep and phases of injections. ”

The Arverne group, based in Pau/ France, was founded “by underground specialists from the oil and geothermal sectors”. It consists of Arverne Drilling, a drilling company (acquired by Arverne in February 2020) which has developed its know-how in the oil, gas, mining and geothermal sectors in France and around the world since 1958; d’Arverne Resources, which operates internationally; and Arverne Geothermal, established in October 2020 for geothermal projects.

Source: DNA