Geothermal resource assessment in Korea Youngmin Lee a , Sungho Park b,1, *, Jongchan Kim b , Hyoung Chan Kim a , Min-Ho Koo b a Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, South Korea b Kongju National University, South Korea Contents 1. Introduction .................................................................................................... 2392 2. Geology ....................................................................................................... 2393 3. Geothermal applications .......................................................................................... 2393 4. Theory ........................................................................................................ 2394 5. Geothermal data ................................................................................................ 2394 5.1. Volume .................................................................................................. 2394 5.2. Thermal properties ......................................................................................... 2394 5.3. Heat flow................................................................................................. 2395 5.4. Heat production ........................................................................................... 2395 5.5. Surface temperature ........................................................................................ 2397 6. Results ........................................................................................................ 2397 6.1. Temperature at depths ...................................................................................... 2397 6.2. Heat content .............................................................................................. 2397 7. Discussion ..................................................................................................... 2398 7.1. Uncertainty due to thermal conductivity........................................................................ 2398 7.2. Uncertainty due to porosity .................................................................................. 2399 7.3. Uncertainty due to sedimentary rock .......................................................................... 2399 8. Conclusions .................................................................................................... 2400 Acknowledgements .............................................................................................. 2400 References ..................................................................................................... 2400 1. Introduction It is well known that Korea is an energy-deficient country. About 97 percent of the energy consumed is imported. Korea is now the world’s fourth-largest energy importer [1]. Therefore, the country is extremely vulnerable to rises in oil prices, as it has to Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 14 (2010) 2392–2400 ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 6 July 2009 Accepted 18 May 2010 Keywords: Geothermal energy Temperature EGS Korea ABSTRACT To estimate available geothermal energy and to construct temperature at depth maps in Korea, various geothermal data have been used. Those include 1560 thermal property data such as thermal conductivity, specific heat and density, 353 heat flow data, 54 surface temperature data, and 180 heat production data. In Korea, subsurface temperature ranges from 23.9 8C to 47.9 8C at a depth of 1 km, from 34.2 8C to 79.7 8C at 2 km, from 44.2 8C to 110.9 8C at 3 km, from 53.8 8C to 141.5 8C at 4 km, and from 63.1 8C to 171.6 8C at 5 km. The total available subsurface geothermal energy in Korea is 4.25  10 21 J from surface to a depth of 1 km, 1.67  10 22 J to 2 km, 3.72  10 22 J to 3 km, 6.52  10 22 J to 4 km, and 1.01  10 23 J to 5 km. In particular, the southeastern part of Korea shows high temperatures at depths and so does high geothermal energy. If only 2% of geothermal resource from surface to a depth of 5 km is developed in Korea, energy from geothermal resources would be equivalent to about 200 times annual consumption of primary energy (2.33  10 8 TOE) in Korea in 2006. ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author at: Geothermal Resources Department, Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources, 92 Gwahak-no, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-350, South Korea. Tel.: +82 42 868 3069; fax: +82 42 868 3358. E-mail address: riroa80@gmail.com (S. Park). 1 Current address: Korea Rural Community Corporation, South Korea. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser 1364-0321/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2010.05.003