Geothermal energy is considered to be regenerative energy. Its advantages: The heat stored in the earth can be used for heating and cooling and also to generate electricity. Scientists at the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientÃficas (CSIC) in Spain now want to find out to what extent low-lying volcanic regions can also serve as a clean and sustainable source of energy. They are doing this by actively pumping water into these ultra-hot geothermal systems in order to generate renewable heat and electricity.
The research project, named HIGHER, is about a new form of deep geothermy that concentrates primarily on volcanic regions. What is particularly interesting about this technology is its potentially high energy production. As a matter of fact, it exceeds conventional systems by a factor of ten.
The scientists recently published their results in the renowned scientific journal Nature Communications. The HIGHER project is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. With a positive outcome – as the TU Freiberg and the UFZ are planning to further expand their collaboration in the field of environmental geosciences.
From the Global Geothermal News archives: