EU URGENT project launched for urban seismic geothermal exploration

Seismic measurements at the Zurich airport in Switzerland (source: Flughafen Zurich AG)

The EU-funded “Sustainable and affordable Urban Geothermal Exploration Novel Technologies and Workflows” or the URGENT project has officially been launched in Mol, Belgium to address the challenges of urban exploration for geothermal.

Despite the potential of geothermal to play a prominent role in the heat transition in Europe, its growth is hampered by the limited knowledge about the resources and risks in these challenging environments. However, many existing exploration methods are unsuitable for reservoir characterization in highly urban settings.

The URGENT project addresses this gap by providing sustainable and affordable solutions for urban seismic exploration of geothermal resources. Low-impact innovative technologies, consisting of an electric seismic source and novel MEMS based sensors integrated into autonomous nodes, will be designed, built, and tested on 3 sites:

• Balmatt, Belgium
• Konin, Poland
• Batta, Hungary

The URGENT project includes the development, testing, and demonstration of:

• Two novel seismic exploration technologies
• Machine learning post-processing methods
• A risk management toolbox supporting project risk and performance management
• Integrated exploration strategies for de-risking geothermal projects

Ultimately, improved reservoir characterization will reduce the geological uncertainties and contribute to increase drilling success rate by 20%. The project aims to contribute to accelerating the deployment of urban geothermal projects through exploration workflows suited for these environments, market uptake analysis and reinforced community acceptance.

The project partners for URGENT are the following:

Visit the official page for the URGENT project for more information.

Source: European Commission and Virginie Harcouët-Menou via LinkedIn