Projects
Projects I am currently involved in:
DEEPEN
SNF
CSD
Despite intensive research, scientists cannot predict exactly when and where the next major earthquake will occur. Domenico Giardini, ETH Professor of Seismology and Geodynamics, Florian Amann of RWTH Aachen University, Stefan Wiemer, Director of the Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich, and Massimo Cocco of the Instituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Italy, want to better understand the physics of earthquake processes with their ERC Synergy project "FEAR".
The rock laboratory "Bedretto Lab" in the Swiss Alps, built by ETH Zurich and the Werner Siemens Foundation, offers FEAR a unique research environment. The researchers will generate small earthquakes under controlled conditions at a depth of more than one kilometre and on a scale of ten to one hundred metres. They will measure a variety of earthquake parameters using a dense sensor network and then analyse them. The consortium hopes to gain a better understanding of the dynamics of earthquakes. The new findings will also be used to advance experiments on the safe use of geoenergy and to improve the predictability of earthquakes.
The Swiss Energy Strategy 2050 envisages considerably increasing the share of renewable energies. Geothermal energy, using the heat captured in the deep underground, is one such source. In the "Bedretto Underground Laboratory for Geoenergies", ETH Zurich studies in close collaboration with national and international partners, techniques and procedures for a safe, efficient, and sustainable use of geothermal heat. To this aim, a unique research infrastructure has been established. It is located 1.5 km below surface in the middle of a 5.2 km long tunnel connecting the Tessin with the Furka tunnel.
This GEOTHERMICA research, innovation and demonstration project (requested budget: 1.14M Euro ) brings together a small team of the most experienced operators of geothermal projects and leading scientists from Switzerland, Germany and Iceland. We will improve and validate the advanced technologies for monitoring and controlling induced seismicity that have been developed and coded in the past three years. These technologies are now ready to be used as a data-driven, adaptive decision support tool during industrial applications, the core objective of COSEISMIQ. We will demonstrate the technology (TRL 6+) as part of a commercial, multi-well application (CRI 3-4). We choose Iceland as the demonstration site because here conditions are ideal: there are many existing and commercially successful geothermal projects and induced seismicity is common.
Past Projects:
IMAGE (Integrated Methods for Advanced Geothermal Exploration) is a European project involving 20 partners from 9 different countries. Goal of the project is to develop an integrated geothermal exploration approach based on state-of-the-art scientific methods. The project is co-funded for four years by the European Commission within the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) and started on the 1st of November 2013.
The GeoBest project on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office for Energy (SFOE) provide cantonal and federal authorities with guidelines on how to handle seismic hazard in the framework of the environmental risk assessment. Within GEOBEST, selected pilot projects in Switzerland will be supported in the necessary seismic monitoring of natural and induced seismicity. GeoBest supports the pilot project in the first two years, that are most critical with respect to the financial risk, by providing seismological instrumentation from the GeoBest instrument pool and partial financial support for the installation and operation of the seismic monitoring network. In return the pilot projects grant SED access to project data needed for seismic hazard assessment and the development of best practice guidelines.
The Swiss Competence Center on Supply of Electricity (SCCER-SoE) is established to develop fundamental research and innovative solutions in the domains of GeoEnergies (Deep Geothermal Energy and CO2 sequestration) and HydroPower. SCCER-SoE will build a true national competence center with research and cooperation partners from the ETH schools and research centres, six Universities, three UAS, key industry partners, federal offices and services.
