Utilizing the Geology to Your Advantage; Innovative Shallow Geothermal Energy in Crystalline Rocks

Shallow geothermal energy is an increasingly important source for heating and cooling of buildings in Scandinavia. Norway’s geology bears some challenges relating to shallow geothermal energy. The dominating geology is crystalline bedrock, which does not allow for the development of e.g. ATES. LEAT is a concept that is developed by Ruden Energy and based on the utilization of the fracture network in fractured crystalline rocks and the naturally occurring groundwater, in an open-loop well system. Instead of trying to avoid fracture systems and groundwater flow, LEAT enables the utilization of these features. The benefit of LEAT is that this concept requires a significantly lower number of wells to deliver the same amount of heating and cooling to a building or infrastructure when compared to more traditional closed well systems. There is a potential of creating an energy system with the same energy output with just 10 % of the number of wells in a traditional closed well system.