Meanings
- not comparablePertaining to geothermal systems involving solid rock with insufficient permeability for fluids.
Petrothermal reservoirs fall in the category of unconventional geothermal resources.
2022 April 21, Johanna Fink, Elisa Heim, Norbert Klitzsch, State of the Art in Deep Geothermal Energy in Europe: With Focus on Direct Heating, Springer Nature, →ISBN, page 93 more examples
In petrothermal resources most of the heat is stored in the rock mass, while in hydrothermal resources pore fluids carry a substantial fraction of the total energy in situ.
1989, Science & Technology in the Islamic WorldSome fields have only hot rocks under the surface. Utilization of this petrothermal source requires pumping surface water through a well in a constructed hole to a reservoir.
1993 April 3, Richard C. Dorf, Electrical Engin Hdbk The, CRC PressIt is, for example, estimated that the theoretical potential for electricity generation from petrothermal reservoirs in Germany is about 1100 EJ [2], which means that the resource could have a significant share in the energy supply from renewable energies (RE) in the future.
2022 June 16, Mejdi Jeguirim, Renewable Energy Production and Distribution: Recent Developments, Academic Press, →ISBN, page 273
Origin
From petro- (“of stone”) + thermal.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
petrothermal. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/petrothermal
“petrothermal.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/petrothermal. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “petrothermal,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/petrothermal.
Source: petrothermal on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.