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What was born almost 20 years ago as an enthusiastic plan by some Applied Earth Sciences students is now becoming reality: the construction of the wells will start this summer, and in a few years' time TU Delft's campus will be heated by a geothermal source. Earlier this week, the consortium behind Geothermie Delft decided to make the necessary follow-on investment to realise the planned geothermal wells and start the research programme.

Increased use of the subsurface, for example for geothermal energy production or subsurface storage, is crucial for achieving the (inter)national goals for greenhouse gas emissions. Today it was announced that EPOS-eNLarge, a research project that focuses on efficient and safe use of the Dutch subsurface, is one of the projects to be awarded through the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Large-scale Research Infrastructure call. The 10-year project will receive 17.9 million euros from NWO.

The EU aims to have a net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) economy by 2050. At present, heating and cooling represent around 50% of the final energy demand in Europe and are for a large part supplied by fossil fuel derived energy. Large scale seasonal heat storage is a key strategy to decarbonize heating in order to achieve EU ambitions, because sustainable sources like geothermal and solar provide a lot of heat in summer, while we need it in winter. The PUSH-IT consortium receives this Horizon Europe grant to demonstrate and develop such heat storage systems. PUSH-IT stands for Piloting Underground Seasonal Heat Storage In geothermal reservoirs.

De urgentie van de energietransitie neemt elke dag verder toe. De CO2-uitstoot moet in 2030 met 55% verminderd zijn ten opzichte van 1990 en 1,5 miljoen huishoudens moeten dan aardgasvrij zijn. Dat vraagt om concrete actie. Zo’n tien jaar geleden kreeg een groep TU Delft studenten het idee om een geothermische bron op de universiteitscampus te boren. Wat eerst een wild plan leek, werd in gang gezet toen bleek dat de campus een ideale plek voor geothermie was.

Years ago a group of TU Delft students got the idea of realising a geothermal well at the university campus. What at first seemed like a wild plan was set into motion when it became clear the campus grounds were in fact an ideal location. Now, for theme leader Phil Vardon things are almost about to get real. After years of measuring, liaising and researching, detailed preparations to make it a reality are in full flow now. “This geothermal source on our campus will become one of the world’s biggest hotspots for research into geothermal energy.”

Anne Pluymakers, Annemarie Muntendam-Bos, Denis Voskov (all TU Delft) and André Niemeijer (Utrecht University) have been awarded funding from the NWO OTP program for their project “Minimizing the risk of induced seismicity associated with geothermal energy in fractured reservoirs”

TU Delft, Hydreco Geomec, Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN) and Shell are preparing a geothermal project on the TU Delft campus.

David Bruhn, Professor for Geothermal Engineering at our department, was elected as the next coordinator of the EERA Joint Programme Geothermal Energy (JPGE), as of July 1, 2021. The EERA is the European Energy Research Alliance (www.eera-set.eu) and is the largest energy research community in Europe, covering the whole range of low-carbon energy technologies as well as some systemic topics.

Yang Wang held his PhD defence on the 23rd of February. You can access his thesis with the title ‘The impact of heterogeneity on geothermal production: simulation benchmarks and applications’ via the TU Delft repository.

Congratulations to Phil Vardon, who was awarded an NWO Open Technology Programme grant for the project entitled ATES Triplet.