Second successful well re-drilled in Bad Urach geothermal heating project

Bad Urach old market place, Germany (source: flickr/ derfussi, creative commons)

Borehole Urach 4 in the geothermal heating project in the city of Bad Urach in the state of Baden-Württemberg, Germany has been drilled successfully, discharging thermal waters at about 57 degrees Celsius from 700 meters depth. Pumping tests are currently being done before the next phase of planning will proceed to tackle how the thermal waters can be used as local heating supply.

Urach 4 is the second borehole in a series of decades-old boreholes that have been re-drilled in search of thermal waters. We had previously reported on the successful discharge of borehole Urach 3. These boreholes were initially drilled for a hot dry rock project to generate geothermal energy. This project was unsuccessful and was discontinued in 2004.

The two boreholes discharge at different volumetric rates because of their different diameters. According to preliminary test results, Urach 4 is discharging at a rate of 16.4 liters of water per second. The narrower Urach 3 borehole discharges at a lower rate of 8 to 12 liters per second. Engineer Friedrich Cammerer explains that this makes Urach 3 a candidate to supply water for a thermal bath.

“Further planning and investments are still needed,” says Mayor Elmar Rebmann. He also says that one more well will still have to be drilled to as the reinjection well if Urach 4 will be used for production. This could be drilled in Maisental, about 800 to 1000 meters away.

Source: RTF1