GIS-Based Geothermal Resource Assessment of the Denver Basin: Colorado and Nebraska

Abstract

We have completed a volumetric analysis of the geothermal resource potential of the Denver basin using bottom-hole temperatures (BHTs) from approximately 53,000 wells in Colorado and Nebraska. Re-evaluation of our correction scheme shows that a Harrison-type correction yields the best results for a mid-continental United States sedimentary basin. Formation names are not always constant across state boundaries, so we grouped the wells according to seven geochronological units; Lower Cretaceous, Upper Cretaceous, Jurassic, Permian, Pennsylvanian, Mississippian, and Ordovician. We utilized the recovery factor from Sorey et al., which is 0.001 for a structure the size of the Denver Basin. Our estimate of the thermal energy in place, after the recovery factor, is listed by temperature range as follows: 1.49 x 1019 Joules (J) at 90° Celsius (C) and up, 8.15 x 1018 J at 100° C and up, 3.44 x 1018 J at 110° C and up, 1.08 x 1018 J at 120° C and up, 2.35 x 1017 J at 130° C and up, and 2.09 x 1015 J at 140° C and up.