One aim of DESTRESS is to bring together social and economic challenges related to soft stimulation. An initial step for this task is to investigate possible risks: even though soft stimulation aspires to reduce the environmental impact of a reservoir enhancement, not every risk can be excluded. Therefore, thirteen experts from various DESTRESS project partners gathered at Energie Baden-Württemberg (EnBW) research campus in Karlsruhe, Germany.

They identified and described 37 risks. Those include issues like public acceptance, challenges of permissions needed to operate a geothermal project or technical challenges regarding fluid-rock-interactions. The risks were prioritized by conducting a worst case evaluation, in which different monetary and probability categories were assigned.

As one of the main results, a preliminary list of the top 10 risks and its mitigation measures is available now, and will be further evaluated.

Sören Reith, EnBW