Will the New Seismic Technology Shake the Geothermal Industry?

Geothermal energy is expected to play an important role in the new zero-carbon emission era where renewable, sustainable and environmentally friendly energy sources should grow in the energy mix. The reduction of the subsurface risk for the geothermal energy development requires exploration technologies that can be borrowed, and adapted, from the O&G industry: the seismic method has a major role in the geothermal exploration. The challenges of “geothermal seismic” often come from the urban environment, with its obstructions and restrictions limiting the geometry options, the high incoherent noise level.

The Oil&Gas industry has been pushing the limit of the seismic acquisition technology allowing denser surveys to be acquired. However, the price of these acquisition systems and their associated operation cost has been prohibitive, especially for non-Oil&Gas industries, limiting survey designs to 2D or sparse 3D.

The emergence of new acquisition technologies, such as a new generation of much more nimble seismic nodes, allows agile and light operations, and opens new possibilities for urban exploration. Combined with the modern processing and imaging approaches, including model based coherent noise attenuation to precondition data not adequately sampled, allow deploying frugal and agile methods to deliver 3D seismic images at reduced cost.