The Geothermal Energy Buffer: A Promising Carbon Free Solution for Bulk Energy Storage

Energy transition and, on a larger scale, climate change is a paradoxical problem for a geologist. He is probably very familiar with earth’s natural resources availability and also knowledgeable about past marine transgressions effects. Therefore, his knowledge allows him to anticipate the effects of the rapid fossil carbon destocking in the atmosphere. This carbon destocking will be carried out in approximatively 200 years; it is so quick that today, alarming atmospheric CO2 levels have been generated.

However the perplexing problem, geoscientists can and should take action to help our fellow human beings. First, by constantly reminding the necessity to recycle as much as possible finite natural resources, and second, by offering clean and sustainable energy solutions, for us and future generations.

Our proposal is the Geothermal Energy Buffer project. It’s a clean and definitely sustainable bulk energy storage solution based on: thermal storage, energy generation and management of a phase change hydrocarbon, the LPG. Through its performance, dispatchability and power, this innovation has the potential to be comparable to hydropower. This solution is rapidly deployable worldwide in spent oil fields and in many sealed equivalent geological structures. It has the ambition to become a game changer in the electricity market.