5800781d-ae1b-4b7e-8bc8-99cb94e2fef5 English British Geological Survey +44 131 667 1000 The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South EDINBURGH LOTHIAN EH14 4AP United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk 2025-07-25T11:25:53.716338Z UK GEMINI 2.3 http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608362 OSGB 1936 / British National Grid (EPSG::27700) Legacy BGS geothermal models: theoretical potential 'recoverable heat' for the early Carboniferous limestone (hot sedimentary aquifer resources) in northern and southern England 2023 http://data.bgs.ac.uk/id/dataHolding/13608362 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. Enquiries British Geological Survey 0115 936 3142 0115 936 3276 The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South EDINBURGH LOTHIAN EH14 4AP United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk Enquiries British Geological Survey 0115 936 3142 0115 936 3276 The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South EDINBURGH LOTHIAN EH14 4AP United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk https://resources.bgs.ac.uk/images/geonetworkThumbs/5800781d-ae1b-4b7e-8bc8-99cb94e2fef5.png Geology GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2008-06-01 Limestone Geothermal energy Heat recovery UK Location (INSPIRE) Geothermal maps Aquifers Carboniferous BGS Thesaurus of Geosciences 2022 UK Location (INSPIRE) NERC_DDC Access constraints: no limitations. Use constraints: this dataset is available to view under the Open Government Licence V3 (https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/) to encourage its use and re-use, subject to the following acknowledgement accompanying the reproduced BGS materials: 'Contains British Geological Survey materials © UKRI [year]'. Some of the data shown in the BGS view-only service layers are available to licence. The licence cost will generally be a licence administration fee, depending on the usage type and the area coverage of the dataset requested. Companies and other commercial organisations with an interest in reselling BGS data or developing value-added products and services based on BGS data will need a BGS data resellers licence. For more information, contact digitaldata@bgs.ac.uk. 2500 English geoscientificInformation British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 NORTHERN ENGLAND [id=151000] British Geological Survey Gazetteer: Geographical hierarchy from Geosaurus 1979 SOUTHERN ENGLAND [id=158800] -7.8166 -2.4841 55.3686 56.3732 2022 2025 Enquiries British Geological Survey 0115 936 3142 0115 936 3276 The Lyell Centre, Research Avenue South EDINBURGH LOTHIAN EH14 4AP United Kingdom enquiries@bgs.ac.uk https://ukgtp.bgs.ac.uk WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link UK Geothermal Platform Web Map An interactive Web map for exploring geothermal energy potential, assessing constraints, and making informed exploration decisions. https://ukgeothermalplatform.org WWW:LINK-1.0-http--link UK Geothermal Platform An online platform for exploring geothermal energy potential, assessing constraints, and making informed exploration decisions. dataset INSPIRE Implementing rules laying down technical arrangements for the interoperability and harmonisation of Geology 2011 See the referenced specification false Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services 2010-12-08 See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2010:323:0011:0102:EN:PDF false 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.