Secure, clean and efficient energy are at the heart of the H2020’s Societal Challenge 3. As Europe progresses to make its transition to a reliable, sustainable and competitive energy system, solutions must be found to face increasing scarcity of resources in relation to the growing energy needs, whilst mitigating and preventing climate change. With respect to these challenges, the Geo-Energy theme aims to develop transparent, harmonized and science-based pan-European information and knowledge on:
- The subsurface potential to deliver energy resources and storage capacities (fossil fuels, geothermal energy, energy storage and preventing emission of CO2).
- Potential hazards and environmental impacts associated with exploitation of subsurface energy and storage functions.
- Competition, interference and synergies between different uses of subsurface space.
The objectives for generating such information are to enable policy decisions that support a safe and responsible exploitation of subsurface resources and capacities, as well as to increase public awareness on the potential subsurface contributions that help to meet Europe’s energy and climate challenges. Research activities shall typically focus on:
- Establishing state-of art methodologies for harmonized mapping and assessment of potential resources and capacities.
- Improving the interoperability of geological datasets that underpin such assessments.
- Implementing scientific intelligence and information into the policy domain consideing relevant cross-thematic links to groundwater and mineral resources.
Theme coordinator for the Geo-Energy theme is Serge van Gessel from TNO.