Geothermal Energy of Chad

  • The geology of the central African country of Chad is dominated by the low-lying Chad Basin, which rises gradually to mountains and plateaus of the Tibesti Mountains in the North and the Ennedi and Ouaddi plateaus in the East. The northern half of Chad lies within the Sahara;
  • The Chad Basin lies across Central and West Africa and is 200-500m above sea level in elevation, centred around Lake Chad and covers an area of approximately 2,500,000km2 extending mainly over parts of Chad and Niger and also northern parts of Cameroon and Nigeria. The Basin originates from a rift system the developed in the Early Cretaceous when the African and South American lithospheric plates separated. Geothermal gradients ranging from 3 to 4.4oC/100m have been identified from well data in the Chad Basin, with average surface heat flow of ~80mWm -2. Some locations may be possible to be developed for electricity with wells ~3000-4000m deep;
  • The Oubanguides Orogen is along the southern border between the Saharan Meta-Craton and the Congo Craton. Orogenic zones often have good heat fluxes in some locations associated with subduction;
  • In the northern part of Chad, the Tibesti Massif is an area of more significant potential Geothermal Energy with five large inactive volcanic systems but with the presence of surface manifestations including fumaroles, hot springs, and thermal mud pools indicating good heat resources at reasonable depths. This area covers over 30,000km2;
  • Clean, environmentally sustainable renewable Geothermal Energy is possible thanks to modern, low and medium enthalpy Binary ORC power generation solutions. A variety of geoscience tools are available to help incrementally explore and de-risk the areas of potentially suitable heat energy sources before more expensive drilling is required;
  • Very attractive Levelised Cost of Electricity (LCOE) is commercially feasible for some developments to help improve electrification, replace aging oil fired power plants, reduce energy poverty (~10% of the people have electricity), and increase grid resilience. Good Solar PV (all over) and Wind (northern half) energies offer the possibility of resilient hybrid power systems with Geothermal Energy baseload.

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