The European Commission, through the Horizon 2020 framework programme, has granted the DEEPEGS project consortium a research fund of approximately 20 M€ for research and development on geothermal energy utilization on the Reykjanes peninsula and in the South East of France. The DEEPEGS project is a four year project led by HS Orka, Iceland, in cooperation with other partners from Iceland, France, Germany, Italy, and Norway. About 45 % of the grant is allocated to various research in relation to the drilling and testing operation at the demonstration site in Reykjanes and 55% to various drilling and permeability improvement operations in South East France
The DEEPEGS project will be testing stimulating technologies for deep EGS development, and intends to deliver new innovative solutions and models for wider deployments of EGS reservoirs for significant amounts of geothermal power across Europe. The project will demonstrate the capabilities of EGS for widespread exploitation of high enthalpy systems, by testing the deep roots beneath the existing hydrothermal field at Reykjanes, with temperature up to 550°C, and in very deep hydrothermal reservoirs in sedimentary basins at Valence and Vistrenque in France with temperatures up to 220°C.
The deep well at Reykjanes, is expected to be completed in 2016. A 2.5 km deep production well will be deepened to 5 km by HS Orka, Statoil and in partnership with the IDDP project. After drilling the well it will be extensively tested for injectivity and connection to the overlying conventional hydrothermal field, and subsequently flow tested for fluid chemistry and production properties. French operations are planned by 2017 – 2018 with the support of technological centres and industrials actors involved in the DEEPEGS project.
The acronym DEEPEGS stands for: Deployment of Deep Enhanced Geothermal Systems for Sustainable Energy Business. The DEEPEGS partners are HS Orka, Fonroche Géothermie in France, Statoil of Norway, Enel Green Power of Italy, and Landsvirkjun, all operating energy companies, Herrenkneckt Vertical and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, BRGM of France, and ISOR and GEORG from Iceland.
