Exploration Risk

Exploration and exploitation of geohydrothermal reservoirs have some adherent risks. One can distinguish the following:

Exploration risk:
A geothermal reservoir cannot be developed with sufficient quantity or quality. Quantity is defined as the power of a geothermal installation:
P = ρF * cF * Q (Ti – T0),
where  ρF density of the fluid, cF specific heat capacity, Q flow rate und TI,0 temperatures  of the fluid before and after heat extraction.
Quality refers essentially to the chemical composition of the fluid.

Drilling risk:
Technical risks that can be related the rig and the drilling process.

Geological risk:
Appearance of previously unexpected lithologies, formation pressures and fluids as well as induced seismicity.

Operation risk:
Variations of quantity (production rate, temperature) and quality (chemical composition) of fluids during geothermal utilization. Can be caused by changes in the state of technical installations (Corrosion or Scaling) as well as by changes in the retrieval of energy (E = P * Δt).