A Geothermal Well Doublet for Research and Heat Supply of the TU Delft Campus

Abstract

A geothermal well doublet, designed for the two primary aims of research and commercial heat supply, is planned to be constructed on the campus of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. The plans include a comprehensive research programme, including installation of a wide range of instruments alongside a comprehensive logging and coring programme and an extensive surface monitoring network. The wells will be cored, with samples from all representative geological units down to the reservoir. An extensive suite of well-logs is planned to provide detailed information on the properties of the various units. Fibre-optic cables will be installed in both wells all the way down to the reservoir section, which is anticipated to be at 2200m, in the Lower Cretaceous Delft Sandstone. The Delft sandstone is well-known as a reservoir rock for natural gas in the West Netherlands Basin. The wells will be operated by a commercial entity, but the infrastructure is designed and explicitly installed as a research infrastructure. As such it will become part of the European EPOS (European Plate Observing System, https://www.epos-ip.org), such that accessibility and data availability will not be limited to TU Delft researchers. The university has made a decision in principle to start drilling no later than 2020.