Fact Sheet
Objective
Europe needs URGENT solutions to decarbonize its heating sector. Geothermal energy can play a prominent role in this transition, providing heat in urban areas as an alternative to fossil fuels. However, its growth is hampered by the limited knowledge about the resources and risks in these challenging environments. Existing exploration methods are not suited for reservoir characterization in urban contexts. 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 (BE), Konin (PL), Batta (HU). They will enable high-quality data recording including low frequency signals resulting in high resolution imaging up to 4000m of depth. Ultimately, improved reservoir characterization will reduce the geological uncertainties and contribute to increase drilling success rate by 20%.
Also, by optimizing survey design, including compressive sensing and simultaneous shooting, URGENT eventually aims at reducing exploration costs by 30%. For more efficient analysis of the acquired data, AI & ML methods will be developed and tested to assist and automate fault and fracture detection. Structural models including these features will be the basis for geomechanical modelling to assess fault reactivation and the corresponding seismic risk.
In addition, ML techniques used in the O&G sector will be updated and combined with THM reservoir modelling to optimize the location and design of wells, maximizing heat extraction while minimizing seismic risk leading to increase plant lifetime up to 40 years and higher revenue.
URGENT will contribute to accelerate the deployment of urban geothermal projects through exploration workflows suited for these environments, market uptake analysis and reinforced community acceptance.
