Geothermal drilling has now become commonplace in the Netherlands, but no one has ever drilled deeper than four kilometers. A consortium wants to change this.
In the Dutch municipality of Renkum, research is being done to determine whether it will be possible in the future to use ultra-deep geothermal energy to make the energy supply of Smurfit Kappa Parenco, one of the largest paper mills in the Netherlands, largely gas-free.
Consortium Tellus Renkum will carry out the research. There is still a long way to go before ultra-deep geothermal energy can be extracted. Given the great uncertainty in the estimated capacity, there are still not enough chances for a profitable project to become a reality - partly due to the high cost of drilling at the moment. Therefore, it is especially important that additional data be collected to bring down the cost of drilling and improve the project's chances for success.
Source: EBN