In the course of the energy transition, it is of great importance to make renewable energy, which is often produced intermittently, available evenly throughout the year. The use of former hard coal mining infrastructure as a mine heat storage facility is a conceivable option for heat storage in many European regions, as it combines energy system transformation with the structural change of these former heavy industry regions. The geomechanical characterisation and simulation of the underground system is a crucial element in this process.
The seasonal supply and removal of heat to and from underground storage facilities results in cyclical thermal and hydraulic load on the reservoir rocks and fluids. This requires a geoscientific characterisation and thermohydromechanical modelling of the mine to enable reliable predictions of long-term reservoir integrity within the framework of seasonal heat storage.This in turn will allow the localisation of heave at the earth's surface and potentially geomechanically critical areas in the subsurface and the potential for reactivation of existing or the formation of new fault zones.
outcome
- localisation of potentially geomechanically critical areas in the rock mas
- derivation of the reactivation potential of existing faults and estimation of the probability of induced seismicity
- predictions of long-term reservoir integrity in the context of seasonal heat storage