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.

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

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.