GeoModel project closing conference, January 22, 2025 Warsaw
- Events
The closing conference of the GeoModel project was held 22nd January 2025 in Warsaw. The GeoModel project is a collaborative effort between the Mineral and Energy Economy Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences (MEERI PAS) and the Iceland GeoSurvey (ISOR). The project is financed from the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism in the Environment, Energy and Climate Change Programme 2014–2021.
The meeting in Warsaw was attended by about 30 people representing the target group of the project, i.e. the scientific community, the technical staff (operators of geothermal systems), public administration (representatives of the Ministry of Climate and Environment) and representatives of the Polish Geological Institute. During the conference, the objectives, methodology and results of the project were presented in detail.
The conference began with a short introduction by Dr. Maciej Miecznik to the GeoModel project, the main objective of which is to develop computational tools supporting reservoir engineers in the optimal management of geothermal resources. Then, representatives of the MEERI PAS discussed the management of geothermal resources in Poland in the context of diverse hydrogeothermal conditions. Partners from Iceland presented experiences related to the geothermal heating systems along Eyjafjörður in northern Iceland. The next point was the theoretical foundations of lumped parameter models of geothermal reservoirs, which play an important role in forecasting the capacity of geothermal resources and the dynamic level of the water table in boreholes.
The second session was more technical. It started with a discussion of the practical application of the Lumpfit++ software in the analysis of low-temperature geothermal resources in the western and southern parts of Eyjafjörður. Then, the use of the Python programming language to eliminate the thermal lift effect from data obtained from geothermal wellheads was presented in details. Another important point in the conference agedna was the presentation of a wellbore flow calculator that can be applied to geothermal wells in reservoirs characterized by high water mineralization. The session was closed with a lecture on an algorithm developed by ISOR, which is used to indicate the optimal location for new geothermal wells according to the user-defined objective function. This script, also written in Python, works in cooperation with the Waiwera reservoir simulator, which is a freeware and has an open source code.
The last session of the conference was dedicated to the applications of computational tools developed within the GeoModel project. Their implementation on both synthetic and real examples was discussed. The possibilities of using these tools for the optimal management of geothermal resources and planning the location of next wells were also summarized. Then, the GeoSynergy project was presented as a continuation of the activities carried out within the KeyGeothermal and the GeoModel projects. At the end, the whole event was concluded and the conference was officially closed.
The conference provided valuable information on modern methods of managing geothermal resources and practical application of developed tools. The meeting was also an excellent opportunity to exchange experiences between experts from Poland and Iceland.
Author of photos: Aleksandra Kasztelewicz, Magdalena Tyszer (MEERI PAS)
Conference presentations for download: click here
The project is financed under the Fund for Bilateral Relations through the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism (EEA FM) and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism (NFM) 2014-2021, programme “Environment, Energy and Climate Change”.
Project Operator: Ministry of Climate and Environment