EU geothermal programme in Delft

EU geothermal energy programme in Delft

The European Commission is investing €3.4 million in a research programme on the safe and efficient use of geothermal energy. A total of 13 PhD students are involved in this programme at four universities, five of which are PhD students in the geothermal research group at the TU Delft Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences. This group leads the scientific research on the Delft geothermal project, of which the construction will start by the end of 2020. 

Many European countries want to expand the use of geothermal heat to reduce CO2 emissions, but there are still many obstacles to overcome before this can be done safely and efficiently.

Researcher Dr. Maren Brehme (CiTG) will lead the project EASYGO (Efficiency and Safety in Geothermal Operations). She says: “We would like to bring the next generation of geothermal energy leaders to the market with the best experience, skills and network, and we believe that this project does exactly that.” The geothermal training programme is part of 147 Innovative Training Networks (ITNs) in which the European Commission is investing half a billion euros. EASYGO is part of the Idea League network, a network of five European Technical Universities. In this case, apart from TU Delft, also involved are: ETH Zurich, RWTH Aachen and Politecnico di Milano.