Focus Group Geothermal Energy

Background

To match the climate goals of Germany an increased use of renewable energy is needed for the heat sector. The use of geothermal energy offers great potential for the energy transition. Unlike other renewable energies, such as wind and sun, geothermal energy offers a baseload, which means it generates continuously energy. Another use of the geologic underground is for seasonally storing heat and cold to bridge the summer-winter cycles. Geothermal energy and its use for power generation or heat supply have been a focus of research at the German Research Centre for Geosciences Potsdam (GFZ) for many years. Together with the Berlin and Potsdam universities (FUB, TUB, UP), numerous national and international research projects on this topic have already been carried out.

Various courses are currently offered on the subject of geothermal energy at the universities in the Berlin-Potsdam region (FU Berlin, TU Berlin, and University of Potsdam).

While at the TU Berlin topics such as reservoir engineering, drilling technology, fluid-rock interactions and geophysical methods represent the main focus, the FU Berlin focuses on geochemical processes and fluid characterization, and at the UP on heat transport processes and temperature distribution in the earth's crust.