Cheap and efficient application of reliable ground source heat exchangers and pumps - The basic idea of Cheap-GSHPs project is to substantially reduce the total cost of ownership, composed out of investment and operating costs, increase the safety of shallow geothermal systems during installation and operation and increase the awareness of this technologythroughout Europe.
Combined Heat, Power and Metal extraction from ultra-deep ore bodies - The strategic objective of CHPM2030 is to develop a novel and potentially disruptive technological solution that can help satisfy the European needs for energy and strategic metals in a single interlinked process.
Community-based development schemes for geothermal energy - CROWDTHERMAL project aims to empower the European public to directly participate in the development of geothermal projects with the help of alternative financing schemes (crowdfunding) and social engagement tools.
DEPLOYMENT OF DEEP ENHANCED GEOTHERMAL SYSTEMS FOR SUSTAINABLE ENERGY BUSINESS - The goal with the DEEPEGS project is to demonstrate the feasibility of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) for delivering energy from renewable resources in Europe. Testing of stimulating technologies for EGS in deep wells in different geologies, will deliver new innovative solutions and models for wider deployments of EGS reservoirs with sufficient permeability for delivering significant amounts of geothermal power across Europe.
Demonstration of soft stimulation treatments of geothermal reservoirs - DESTRESS demonstrates methods of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The aim is to expand knowledge and to provide solutions for a more economical, sustainable and environmentally responsible exploitation of underground heat. EGSs allow the enormous untapped potential of geothermal energy to be put to widespread use. DESTRESS will improve the understanding of technological, business and societal opportunities and risks related to geothermal energy. Existing and new project sites have been chosen to demonstrate the DESTRESS concept.
Energy oriented Centre of Excellence for computer applications - The EoCoE in computing applications uses the tremendous potential offered by the ever-growing computing infrastructure to foster and accelerate the European transition to a reliable low carbon energy supply using HPC (High Performance Computing). The project has a dedicated task on geothermal energy provision.
Geothermal Emission Gas Control - The core of this project is the application of an innovative technology, recently developed and proved successfully at pilot scale in Iceland, which can limit the production of emissions from geothermal plants by condensing and re-injecting gases or turning the emissions into commercial products. To both increase public acceptance and to generalise this approach, it will be applied by GECO in four distinct geothermal systems in four different European countries: 1) a high temperature basaltic reservoir in Iceland; 2) a high temperature gneiss reservoir in Italy; 3) a high temperature volcano-clastic reservoir in Turkey; and 4) a low temperature sedimentary reservoir in Germany.
Most Easy, Efficient and Low Cost Geothermal Systems for Retrofitting Civil and Historical Buildings - The solutions to apply the shallow geothermy will be different in function of the building type, the climate and the geological conditions of the underground, the geothermal system (drilling methodology, GSHE, grouting,..). The main objectives will be :
- identify and where missing develop building blocks solutions in drilling (machines and methods), GSHE types, heat pumps and other renewable energy/storage technologies, heating and cooling terminals with the focus on every type of built environment, civil and historical;
- generate and demonstrate the most easy to install and cost-effective geothermal energy solutions using and improving existing and new tools.
Geothermal Cooperation Europe Mexico for EGS and super-hot geothermal systems - The GEMex project is a complementary effort of a European consortium with a corresponding consortium from Mexico, who submitted an equivalent proposal for cooperation: the European consortium will be funded through the International Cooperation Programme within the framework of Horizon 2020, while the Mexican partner project is funded by the Mexican government (Conacyt). The joint effort is based on three pillars: 1. Resource assessment at two unconventional geothermal sites. 2. Reservoir characterization using techniques and approaches developed at conventional geothermal sites. 3. Concepts for site development.
Development of novel and cost effective corrosion resistant coatings for high temperature geothermal applications - The Geo-coat project will develop specialised corrosion- and erosion- resistant coatings, based on selected experimental alloys, to be applied through thermal powder deposition, specifically tuned to provide the required bond strength, hardness and density for the challenging environments experienced in geothermal applications. Since there is no single materials or coating solution possible due to the variation in geothermal fluid thermodynamic properties within the geothermal cycle, the target is to design the new coatings to resist each of the specified threats or combinations of threats at key failure points within the geothermal plant, and to apply them only to the affected components.
Advanced materials and processes to improve performance and cost-efficiency of Shallow Geothermal systems and Underground Thermal Storage - GEOCOND will develop solutions to increase the thermal performance of the different subsystems configuring a Shallow Geothermal Energy Systems (SGES) and Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES). An overall cost reduction of about 25% is the aim, leading to a substantial gain in competitiveness. GEOCOND, with a unique consortium of Companies and leading Reseach Institutions in the area of SGES and Materials, will focus on four key development areas in a synergeic and system-wide approach: development of new pipe materials, advanced grouting additives and concepts, advanced Phase Change Materials and system-wide simulation and optimization.
Development of novel and cost-effective drilling technology for Geothermal Systems - Geo-Drill is proposing drilling technology incorporating bi-stable fluidic amplifier driven mud hammer, low cost 3D printed sensors & cables, drill monitoring system, Graphene based materials and coatings.
Tackling the environmental concerns for deploying geothermal energy in Europe - The GEOENVI project has the objective to make sure that deep geothermal energy can play its role in Europe’s future energy supply in an increasingly sustainable way and to create a robust strategy to answer environmental concerns. It will engage with all geothermal stakeholders to ensure the exchange of best practices, the test of harmonized methods in selected areas and then, to facilitate its replication across Europe.
Deployment of novel GEOthermal systems, technologies and tools for energy efficient building retroFITting - GEOFIT is an integrated industrially driven action aimed at deployment of cost effective enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) on energy efficient building retrofitting. This entails the development technical development of innovative EGS and its components, namely, non-standard heat exchanger configurations, a novel hybrid heat pump and electrically driven compression heat pump systems and suite of heating and cooling components to be integrated with the novel GSHP concepts, all specially designed to applied in energy efficient retrofitting projects.
Developing geothermal and renewable energy projects by mitigating their risks. - The GEORISK project will work to establish risk insurance all over Europe and in some key target third countries to cover the exploration phase and the first drilling (test). It means activities to be funded before financial institutions and IPP funding the confirmation drilling and surface systems.
Technologies for geothermal to enhance competitiveness in smart and flexible operation - In GeoSmart, we propose to combine thermal energy storages with flexible ORC solutions to provide a highly flexible operational capability of a geothermal installation. During periods with low demand, energy will be stored in the storage to be released at a later stage when the demand is higher. As this approach does not influence the flow condition at the wellhead, critical infrastructures will be unaffected under variable energy generation. To improve efficiency, we also propose a hybrid cooling system for the ORC plant to prevent efficiency degradation due to seasonal variations. Efficiency will be further improved by larger power plant heat extraction enabled due to a scaling reduction system consisting of specially design retention tank, heat exchanger, and recombining with extracted gases.
GEOTHERMICA's objective is to combine the financial resources and know-how of 16 geothermal energy research and innovation programme owners and managers from 13 countries and their regions. Together with financial support from the European Commission GEOTHERMICA will launch joint projects that demonstrate and validate novel concepts of geothermal energy deployment within the energy system, and that identify paths to commercial large-scale implementation.
Within the GEOTHERMICA initiative, several projects are supported:
Materials Technologies for performance improvement of Cooling Systems in Power Plants - The goal of MATChING is the reduction of cooling water demand in the energy sector through innovative technological solutions, to be demonstrated in thermal and geothermal power plants.
Multidisciplinary and multi-context demonstration of EGS exploration and Exploitation Techniques and potentials - The project addresses the need to capitalise on the exploitation of the widest range of fluid temperature in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) plants and abandoned oil wells. The project's objective is to boost the market penetration of geothermal power in Europe.In order to do so, MEET demonstrates the viability and sustainability of EGS with electric and thermal power generation in all kinds of geological settings with four main types of rocks: granitic (igneous intrusive), volcanic, sedimentary and metamorphic with various degrees of tectonic overprint by faulting and folding.
Redefining geothermal fluid properties at extreme conditions to optimise future geothermal energy extraction - The efficiency of geothermal utilisation largely depends on the behaviour of fluids that transfer heat between the geosphere and the engineered components of a power plant. The Horizon 2020 funded project REFLECT aims to avoid problems related to fluid chemistry rather than treat them. Fluid physical and chemical properties are often poorly defined, as in situ sampling and measurements at extreme conditions have proved difficult to date. Therefore, large uncertainties in current model predictions prevail, which will be tackled in REFLECT by collecting new, high-quality data in critical areas. These data will be implemented in a European Geothermal Fluid Atlas and predictive models, to allow recommendations on how to best operate geothermal systems sustainably.
Novel Productivity Enhancement Concept for a Sustainable Utilization of a Geothermal Resource - Within the EC funded Horizon 2020 project SURE the radial water jet drilling (RJD) technology will be investigated and tested as a method to increase inflow into insufficiently producing geothermal wells.
Transport of Heat in hEteRogeneous Media - The THERM project focuses on the investigation of heat transport and associated thermo-hydro-mechanical (THM) processes occurring during the lifetime of a geothermal reservoir.
Fast track innovative drilling system for deep geothermal challenges in Europe - In the ThermoDrill project, an interdisciplinary team of research institutions and industrial partners from across Europe have joined forces to innovate deep geothermal drilling by combining proven and cost-effective technologies into a completely new process. The unique feature of the new concept is that penetration is achieved by a high pressure fluid jet which supports conventional rotary drilling by breaking the stress in front of the bit to increase bit performance. This combination of fluid jetting and rotary drilling is expected to at least double the rate of penetration.