In November 2023, EAPOSYS joined the first Offsnet Geothermal Transition Summit Europe in Berlin, to scale European geothermal operations by collaborating with the oil and gas industry.
Phasing-out fossils imperative combined with an increased focus on energy security is positioning geothermal energy as a potential game changer as geothermal possesses essential qualities in that context, making it a unique source of energy to build a reliable, ecological, and fair energy future:
- It is a local, autarkic, baseload and dispatchable energy source (i.e. always available, on demand), unlike solar and wind which are dependent on meteorological conditions.
- It can be used both for electricity generation and heating(/cooling) with no or low operational GHG (Greenhouse Gases) emissions.
- It has a minimal land footprint (~70% less land per kWh than wind, ~88% less than solar. → It relies on robust, reliable infrastructures, that resist well extreme weather events.
- It has lower rare/critical mineral requirement and intensity than other energy generation technologies. The relevance of the latter is set to grow dramatically, already in this decade.
To scale geothermal energy globally, a wide consensus is emerging about the necessity to develop new technologies capable of recovering the heat stored into hot dry rock (HDR) reservoirs within the Earth’s crust. Hot dry rock represents 99.9% of the estimated geothermal resource worldwide, hydrothermal conventional geothermal resources representing the remaining 0.1%. Hence the claim that HDR is ubiquitous and holds the promise of “Geothermal Anywhere”! Two main concepts are pursuing Geothermal Anywhere applications:
- EGS: Enhanced (or Engineered) Geothermal Systems require the creation of an artificial rock permeability by fracking, posing the risk of induced seismicity.
- AGS: Advanced Geothermal Systems use single or multiple connected wellbores deployed at heat depth to recover heat stored in HDR through closed loop circulation of a working fluid. They come with more complex drilling operations but hold the promises of predictability and standardization.
Because AGS deployment should happen at a much faster pace and scale, EAPOSYS is fostering the establishment of a public-private alliance network to develop and accelerate the adoption of AGS relevant technologies, know-whys and know-hows with EAPOLABs.
To the Presentation