Developing a virtual digital laboratory for geothermal exploration: data processing, distributed systems and three-dimensional model visualisation of a digital twin

The assessment of the exploration potential and high upfront exploration costs are significant barriers to the deployment of geothermal energy exploitation. The DEGREE project aims to enhance the success rate of such projects through advancing exploration methodologies and the development of a virtual digital underground laboratory. This laboratory leverages a digital twin of the target area, a geothermal test site in the East Eifel region of Germany. The project covers the entire workflow, from data collection and processing to geological and coupled hydro-thermo-mechanical modeling, as well as visualisation and analysis of the model results. This workflow will be designed to be fully automated, including the computation of individual data processing steps on distributed systems. The final model results will be accessible through a browser-based frontend, featuring three-dimensional visualisation and advanced analysis tools. This poster presents an overview of the project’s approach and the planned architecture of the virtual digital laboratory.