Eden GeoPower and ZeroGeo Energy GmbH have announced a strategy and engagement plan to deploy Eden’s rock permeability enhancement technology for geothermal heat and power and geologic hydrogen projects in Europe.
The partners will identify opportunities to deploy the former’s Electrical Reservoir Stimulation (ERS) technology in Europe to increase rock permeability in geothermal and geologic hydrogen reservoirs to maximize heat and natural hydrogen; and create permeability in suitable geological formations, allowing more geothermal projects than would be traditionally possible with conventional multi-borehole projects.
Eden said it has developed an ERS technology to increase the recovery of natural resources and improve the economics of resource recovery with minimal environmental impact.
Its new process uses electricity to enhance permeability, increasing the recovery of new and existing assets. This reduces water consumption, curbs carbon emissions, and mitigates the seismicity risks that come with traditional hydraulic fracturing, making the process fundamentally more sustainable the company said.
ZeroGeo’s development pipeline of Projects Thermo in Germany and Tief in Switzerland, plus its advisory services business are aligned with Eden’s objectives of enhancing subsurface permeability across industries, including geothermal and geologic hydrogen said the developer.
It added it will seek to use Eden’s technology in its projects where possible, and promote the use of ERS technology in Europe.
“We are delighted to be working with Eden GeoPower, to help bring its new technology to Europe,” said ZeroGeo chief executive John Ashbridge.
“The next generation of natural resource recovery technologies are critical in the energy transition. Europe has a long history of geothermal heat and power generation, but facilities have often been unable to achieve required production rates due to restrictions on traditional hydraulic fracturing, so we expect that Eden’s technology will be of great interest to project owners and developers.”
Eden chief executive Paris Smalls added: “We are delighted to have ZeroGeo assisting us with bringing our technology to Europe.
“Our technology is ideally suited to the operating environment in Europe, which has essentially banned the use of traditional hydraulic rock stimulation techniques in many countries.
“With our alternative, water-minimal electric based rock stimulation technology, we can increase permeability and avoid the injection of large volumes of water into the reservoir.
“We believe that our technology can be a game changer for the European renewable energy market, particularly for deep geothermal and geologic hydrogen.
“Our new partnership with ZeroGeo highlights our goals to bring the value of our technology to the European market, and assist many countries in achieving their renewable energy goals.”