Workshop Description

Our future renewable energy system will require flexibility to accommodate the changing patterns of energy production and consumption. Energy storage will play a pivotal role in providing this flexibility by offering balancing services at timescales ranging from seconds and minutes to days, weeks and even seasons. 

While batteries are ideally suited to store and deliver energy with fast response for a short period, they are not capable of storing the large amounts of energy that must be supplemented to secure supply during prolonged periods of several days to more than a week with calm winds and no or little sunshine. 

At this timescale, large-scale storage of energy in the subsurface is currently the only option. Furthermore, it can play a key role in the integration of variable renewable electricity sources (wind, solar) into our energy system by providing a means to shift the use of excess electricity generated at times of oversupply forward in time to periods of deficit, thereby maximizing its utilization. In this way it also facilitates sector coupling, because the large-scale conversion of electricity to alternative energy carriers (e.g. hydrogen), and use of such energy carriers as clean fuel or feedstock in other sectors, requires buffering capacity to secure supply at all times. 

In this workshop, we will examine the crucial role of the subsurface in the transition to a renewables-based energy system, review the current state of play and potential of subsurface energy storage technologies, and discuss the research challenges that must be addressed to advance subsurface energy storage technologies from R&D via demonstration towards application.

Who should attend

Geoscientists and engineers that want to understand how the subsurface can enable the energy transition and what role they can play, E&P service providers that want to expand their business beyond oil & gas, policy makers, energy consultants.

Workshop Programme

*Presenter