Medium- to Low-Temperature Geothermal Reserves of the State of Aguascalientes, Mexico: a Partial Assessment

Abstract

As we have shown in previous work, Mexico is blessed with important medium- to low-temperature (T<200?C) geothermal reserves, which are currently grossly underutilized. Our previous work focused on the aggregated geothermal reserves of all the Mexican states with known geothermal resources. In this paper we present a partial assessment of the geothermal reserves of the state of Aguascalientes. This assessment is partial of necessity, due to the current lack of information necessary to cover all the geothermal resources of this state.
Our assessment includes 81.25% of the identified geothermal surface anomalies, distributed in 14 geothermal localities, with surface areas ranging between 2.6 and 16 km2. We used the volume method, complemented with Monte Carlo simulations, and a recovery factor equal to 25%, to estimate geothermal reserves and their inherent uncertainties. Our results indicate that the aggregated reserves of these 14 geothermal localities lie between 0.68x1016 and 1.21x1016 kJ, with 90% confidence. The most likely reservoir temperatures lie between 55 and 161?C. These temperatures are potentially useful for a variety of applications within the socioeconomic environment of the state, such as drying fruit, lumber, cereal and cement blocks; concentration of fruit juice; milk evaporation; process heat for textile, paper, sugar, beer, soda, etc. industries; greenhouse heating; fish farming; and spas. The magnitude of these reserves and their associated temperatures are potentially important to positively impact the economic development of the populations co-located with these resources.