FindHeat consortium launched to develop new geothermal exploration toolkit

Drilling rig being set up at the Geothermie Delft site in the Netherlands (source: Geothermie Delft)

The new EU-funded FindHeat consortium has officially been launched that aims to develop an innovative toolkit to support more efficient and sustainable exploitation of geothermal energy, thus reducing technical and economic risks and boosting public support.

The FindHeat consortium is led by TU Delft and brings together long-standing expertise and innovation from industry and academia. The consortium members are as follows:

• ETH Zurich
• Imperial College London
• Charles University Prague
• University of Cologne
• the Czech Geological Survey
• Reykjavik Energy (Orkuveitan)
• Electricite de Strasbourg
• Repsol
• Delft Inversion
• TRACS International Ltd.

FindHeat is largely funded by the European Union and receives additional funding from UK Research and Innovation, the Swiss National Foundation, and the TU Delft Excellence Foundation.

The FindHeat consortium will develop an agile toolkit to help reduce technical and economic barriers holding back investment and undermining public trust in geothermal energy. The focus of the toolkit will be a new exploration workflow for geothermal energy that combines innovative software solutions, low-cost geophysical and geological exploration techniques, tailored training, and public engagement.

The new toolkit will be validated across eight geologically diverse geothermal plays to demonstrate its economic and technical benefits when exploring and appraising geothermal resources. The FindHeat consortium directly involves end users from industry that will not only support the development of the toolkit but also apply and exploit it in their daily operations to ensure its technical and economic feasibility.

FindHeat includes comprehensive social science research to co-create new communication strategies that improve public engagement and help to earn public trust. By combining improved public support with reduced technical and economic risk, the FindHeat consortium will lead to a more efficient and sustainable exploitation of geothermal energy and therefore help to meet the European targets for geothermal energy.

Source: TU Delft