Solutions to materials challenges in Geothermal

European Sustainable Energy week (EUSEW), hosted by the European commission, is the biggest policy conference in Europe dedicated to renewables and promotion of sustainable energy. The event provides a synergistic platform for energy stakeholders from industry to academia, policy makers and members of the commission to debate new policies, innovations, challenges and breakthroughs in energy transitions. The conference this year featured over 90 sessions exhibiting the current market trend in renewables for a clean and decarbonised future. With an existing reputation in the conventional energy sector, TWI presented its contribution to sustainable energy — exploitation of the underutilised geothermal resource ― the free power beneath our feet. As lead organisers for session ‘Geothermal energy: meeting financial and technical challenges’, chaired by Chris Punshon, Industry Group Manager, Power, Equipment and Infrastructure, TWI, demonstrated its ability to offer solutions to some of the materials challenges in harnessing the potential of geothermal energy as the next generation renewable resource. Addressing a packed audience, Henry Begg, Section Manger Surface Engineering, presented the advancements in material science and techno-economic impacts of the projects Geo-Coat and Geo-Drill on the geothermal industry. “We are developing new coating compositions and evaluating a range of deposition techniques in both simulated and real geothermal environments. The hope is that we can generate real cost savings through the use of novel coatings”, says Henry while presenting the emerging novel coating technologies for Geo-Coat.

The workshop illustrated the maturation of the geothermal energy and its potential to usher in a clean and sustainable energy future with enlightening talks on EU R&I policy perspectives, technology roadmap on deep geothermal, exploitation of shallow geothermal, geothermal market investments and other innovative H2020 projects.

Acknowledgements: The projects Geo-Coat and Geo-Drill have been funded by the European Union’s H2020 program under grant agreement numbers 764086 and 815319 respectively.