Geothermics and Reservoir Geomechanics


The Earth contains a practically unfailing source of energy: its heat. Geothermal energy has great potential to supply our societies with clean, local and sustainable energy. The extraction of heat is carried out by circulation of a fluid through the hot rock mass, and then by the transport of the heated fluid trough a borehole to the surface. At depths where the temperature is sufficient for geothermal applications, the rock formations having the required properties for these fluid circulations are rare.

Thus, the major challenges for the growth of deep geothermal energy are to identify these targets and to develop methods to create conditions enabling heat extraction. The implementation of these methods requires a better knowledge of conditions in our deep underground and a better understanding of the mechanisms triggered during the geothermal reservoir development operations. These issues lie at the interface between geology and geomechanics.