TIn Central Europe, the utilization of low enthalpy
reservoirs for electricity production has not yet fully
developed. Reliable technological experience will
only be obtained from future projects. Currently, the
utilization is still at an experimental stage and the
failure of only a single project could easily have
dramatic consequences for the continuation of other
projects due to limited public interest and funding.
Due to the imponderability of pure geothermal
production we propose a new hybridization concept.
Herewith, the probability of a success will be
increased and geothermal energy can become
attractive for private funding. In contrast to existing
hybridization plants using geothermal to preheat
working fluids of conventional plants we consider a
superheating from additional fuels of a geothermal
vapor cycle. Therewith, an optimum temperature can
be adjusted that is less dependent on the geothermal
source temperature but that is generally considerably
higher than most geothermal plants. Such
hybridization offers the advantage of a smooth
transfer from conventional systems and allows a
nearly arbitrary combination of different energy
fuels. On the basis of existing data from the European
EGS location in Soultz-sous-ForÍts, economic
estimations have been performed. Based on proper
thermodynamic evaluation, our quantitative analysis
demonstrates the advantage of such utilization, if
already pure water is superheated. Such hybrid
combination would produce electricity to an
overwhelming part from geothermal resources. Using
even organic working fluids, such plants even start to
become economic at T~100?C under typical legal
European conditions.

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