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Legacy BGS geothermal models: theoretical potential 'recoverable heat' for the early Carboniferous limestone (hot sedimentary aquifer resources) in northern and southern England

This raster dataset shows the modelled P50 distribution of the theoretical potential 'heat recoverable' (Hrec) across the northern and southern early Carboniferous limestone (ECL) in Great Britain (MW/km2), at a resolution of 2500 m x 2500 m. Hrec is calculated for resource temperatures greater than 50°C, which represents the minimum temperature required for direct use of heat from hot sedimentary aquifer resources. Hrec represents the proportion of accessible heat in an aquifer according to the USGS definition described in e.g. Muffler and Cataldi (1978). Its calculation is part of the research published by D J.R. Jones, T. Randles, T. Kearsey, T.C. Pharaoh, A. Newell (2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geothermics.2023.102649. Areas of high uncertainty are delineated in the published paper and the theoretical potential of the recoverable heat is presented with very high uncertainty.

Simple

Date (Publication)
2023
Identifier
http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608362
Distributor
  British Geological Survey - Enquiries
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South , EDINBURGH , LOTHIAN , EH14 4AP , United Kingdom
0115 936 3142
0115 936 3276
Point of contact
  British Geological Survey - Enquiries
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South , EDINBURGH , LOTHIAN , EH14 4AP , United Kingdom
0115 936 3142
0115 936 3276
Maintenance and update frequency
notPlanned Not planned
GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0
  • Geology
BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences
  • Limestone
  • Geothermal energy
  • Heat recovery
  • UK Location (INSPIRE)
  • Geothermal maps
  • Aquifers
  • Carboniferous
dataCentre
  • UK Location (INSPIRE)
Keywords
  • NERC_DDC
Access constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
no limitations
Other constraints
The dataset is made freely available for access, e.g. via the Internet. Either no third party data / information is contained in the dataset or BGS has secured written permission from the owner(s) of any third party data / information contained in the dataset to make the dataset freely accessible.
Use constraints
otherRestrictions Other restrictions
Other constraints
The copyright of materials derived from the British Geological Survey's work is vested in the Natural Environment Research Council [NERC]. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a retrieval system of any nature, without the prior permission of the copyright holder, via the BGS Intellectual Property Rights Manager. Use by customers of information provided by the BGS, is at the customer's own risk. In view of the disparate sources of information at BGS's disposal, including such material donated to BGS, that BGS accepts in good faith as being accurate, the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the quality or accuracy of the information supplied, or to the information's suitability for any use. NERC/BGS accepts no liability whatever in respect of loss, damage, injury or other occurence however caused.
Other constraints
Available under the Open Government Licence subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced NERC materials "Contains NERC materials ©NERC [year]"
Other constraints
The dataset is made available to external clients under BGS Digital Data Licence terms and conditions. Revert to the IPR Section (iprdigital@bgs.ac.uk ) if further advice is required with regard to permitted usage.
Spatial representation type
grid Grid
Distance
2500  urn:ogc:def:uom:EPSG::9001
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information
Geographic identifier
NORTHERN ENGLAND [id=151000]

Date (Creation)
1979

Geographic identifier
SOUTHERN ENGLAND [id=158800]

Date (Creation)
1979

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Begin date
2022
End date
2025
Unique resource identifier
OSGB 1936 / British National Grid (EPSG::27700)
Distribution format
Distributor
  British Geological Survey - Enquiries
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South , EDINBURGH , LOTHIAN , EH14 4AP , United Kingdom
0115 936 3142
0115 936 3276
OnLine resource
UK Geothermal Platform Web Map ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )

An interactive Web map for exploring geothermal energy potential, assessing constraints, and making informed exploration decisions.

OnLine resource
UK Geothermal Platform ( WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link )

An online platform for exploring geothermal energy potential, assessing constraints, and making informed exploration decisions.

Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Other
dataset

Conformance result

Date (Publication)
2011
Explanation
See the referenced specification
Pass
No

Conformance result

Date (Publication)
2010-12-08
Explanation
See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF
Pass
No
Statement
The study was conducted to assess the theoretical potential of geothermal energy from the early Carboniferous limestone (ECL) in Great Britain. The theoretical potential 'recoverable heat' (Hrec) provides an estimate of the fraction of geothermal 'heat-in-place' (HIP) that can be produced as thermal power (in kilowatts). It was calculated using the 3DHIP tool (Piris et al., 2021), which is based on the USGS volumetric HIP method developed by Muffler and Cataldi (1978). The values are theoretical due to lack of operational data for the UK. The method uses a Monte Carlo simulation to calculate the P50 probability distribution function for Hrec based on the P50 distribution of the HIP derived from the 3D geological model, gridded at an XYZ spatial resolution of 2500 x 2500 x 50 m. Hrec was calculated assuming a recovery factor (R) of 0.1, a plant factor (Pf) of 0.95 (proportion of time a plant is likely to be operating), a geothermal project lifetime (Tlive) of 30 years, and a heat exchanger conversion factor of 0.85. The original Hrec map (kW/m2) was converted into MW/km2 to homogenise the outputs as part of the 2025 UK Geothermal Platform project. The recoverable heat highly depends on the thickness of the limestone aquifer, which is poorly constrained in some areas. Recovering the heat from the whole thickness of the aquifer is not likely to be technically possible, so these values are high, theoretical estimates.
File identifier
2f98f2ff-2ee1-37b7-e063-0937940a4ed0 XML
Metadata language
EnglishEnglish
Hierarchy level
dataset Dataset
Date stamp
2025-11-13
Metadata standard name
UK GEMINI
Metadata standard version
2.3
Point of contact
  British Geological Survey
The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South , EDINBURGH , LOTHIAN , EH14 4AP , United Kingdom
+44 131 667 1000
Dataset URI
http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608362
 
 

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