SMARTRES is a broad, multidisciplinary project that brings together research on the geoscience and geoengineering of shallow geothermal technology, use of artificial intelligence (AI) to manage and optimize urban geothermal deployments, and responsible innovation, including societal engagement.
The research programme has been subdivided into six separate but inter-related work packages:
WP1: Stakeholder engagement in urban geothermal
Key science questions: What are the key issues and obstacles to stakeholder uptake of an urban geothermal resource? What is the current state of geothermal resource utilisation in our chosen case studies of Manchester and London?
Negative views of subsurface operations in the UK have significantly increased in the wake of protests around exploitation of unconventional oil and gas resources. To avoid this for geothermal resources, it is essential to ensure that society becomes a partner in co-constructing the path of innovation as opposed to seeking social acceptance in the final development phases. We are working to advance the desirability of geothermal resource use in urban areas by applying a Responsible Innovation (RI) approach with focus on Ethical, Legal and Social Aspects (ELSA framework). We are identifying and evaluating the legal and regulatory barriers which hinder geothermal deployment in urban areas. Leveraging direct engagement in the case studies, we will conduct a structured assessment of stakeholder requirements for large-scale uptake of urban geothermal technologies.
WP2: Quantifying subsurface response and environmental impacts
Key science questions: How do temperature changes impact the structural integrity of the reservoir and the environmental state of groundwater and microbiology? How does heat move through the key UK Sherwood Sandstone and Chalk storage aquifers? What information can innovative monitoring techniques provide to constrain subsurface temperature changes in space (3D) and time (4D) to inform regulation and management? ?
We are generating first-of-a-kind, high-resolution, multi-parameter interpreted datasets from a series of carefully-scaled and intensively-monitored field experiments. These will utilise existing NERC-funded field research sites offering contrasting real-world aquifer properties and targeting aquifers that together underlie >11 million people in UK urban centres: the UKGEOS Cheshire Observatory at Thornton Science Park (Sherwood Sandstone aquifer) and the Bottom Barn Abstraction site (BBA) in Berkshire (Chalk aquifer).
The Cheshire Observatory comprises 20 boreholes arranged in 4 arrays, across the 30x30mx100m deep site, with a range of downhole monitoring capabilities including fibre optic Distributed Temperature Sensors (DTS), thermistors, Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) and ground monitoring. The site’s urban/industrial setting allows novel monitoring strategies to be tested specifically in a noisy urban environment. The BBA site comprises 6 open-hole boreholes plus an EA-operated abstraction borehole across the 70x60x100m site; there is no permanently installed monitoring but easy access to bring in equipment. Both sites offer a dense network of boreholes penetrating a well-characterised aquifer, leveraging significant current and previous research.
Field experiments will use the bespoke Thermal Response Testing (TRT) borehole array at UKGEOS, to determine the thermal capacity of the Sherwood aquifer. Active, open-hole DTS heat tracer tests will run in the TRT array and provide data describing heat flow and dispersal in the aquifer. The effect on the subsurface environment, including seismicity and migration of the heat plume, will be monitored in real time by a suite of passive microseismic and shallow geophysical experimental arrays. Our experiments will determine the in-situ thermal properties of the aquifers, determine how heat and cool move through the aquifers, and how temperature changes might impact the chemistry and biology of groundwater.
WP3: Heat storage and production (load) capacity
Key science questions: Can heat-flow models be built to inform the maximum subsurface storage and production (load) capacity in different urban systems? To what extent can waste heat from industry and other urban buildings be integrated into the urban thermal geoasset?
Deployment risks for urban geothermal arise because there is uncertainty in the response of the aquifer and in how the deployment may interact with other subsurface functions. Managing this complex system requires a good understanding of the aquifer and good engineering practice informed by fit-for-purpose models. WP3 addresses these key science questions using numerical simulations and models across several length-scales: field-experiment scale (cf. WP2), district-scale (a few nearby deployments) and city-scale (multiple deployments). Numerical models are widely used to predict resource capacity and design engineering solutions across a range of subsurface applications, but their use in urban geothermal deployments at large scale has not been demonstrated in the UK.
WP3 address these key science questions using numerical simulations and models based on the Sherwood aquifer across two length-scales: city-scale and single ATES project scale. The numerical modelling is used to investigate a range of storage scenarios beyond the field experiments conducted in WP2.
Modelling at the city-scale focuses on Manchester and the Sherwood Sandstone aquifer, and London and the Chalk aquifer. Aquifer geologic heterogeneity is known to impact on fluid flow and hence geothermal capacity and efficiency. A range of different models representing different types and levels of heterogeneity are being optimized, to identify the range of storage capacity and efficiency, and which heterogeneities are key. Modelling is also used to address groundwater contamination and mixing. Coupled hydrogeological-thermal(-compositional) (HTC) simulations use ICL’s advanced open-source reservoir simulator IC-FERST, which uses dynamic unstructured mesh optimisation to allow high resolution simulations in a large or geologically complex model domain at lower cost than conventional fixed grids.
WP4: Geothermal resource monitoring and management
Key science questions: How can the latest innovations in high-resolution (spatial and temporal) monitoring and Artificial Intelligence (AI) contribute to describing the evolution and environmental stability of a geothermal development, and its active management? Does minimizing (by assimilating data) and quantifying uncertainty support robust management?
Monitoring and management of multiple urban geothermal deployments is challenging [49]. Here we will develop ‘proof-of-concept' that AI-based models informed by real-time data from urban geothermal installations could be used to manage and optimize resource utilisation. Data collection and reporting via ‘smart’ (internet enabled) installations could be a condition of geothermal deployment. However, the type and quantity of data that would be required to build a fit-for-purpose AI model has not been identified; nor has the most appropriate AI approach to use, how it should be trained and how new data should be assimilated. Here we address these key science questions.
WP5: Sustainability of urban geothermal
Key science question: What is the long-term sustainability of multiple operating geothermal schemes within a city or region, and what factors might affect this?
WP5 combines results from WPs 1-4, literature studies and research results from complementary programs in the UK and elsewhere, to quantify the sustainability of large-scale urban geothermal deployments in the case studies of Manchester and London. It addresses stakeholder views (WP1), subsurface response including groundwater quality (WP2), deployment interference and optimisation (WP3), and monitoring and management (WP4).
This combination of insight underpins the development of an effective management strategy for multiple uses and resources of heat in a given urban setting. By engaging with stakeholders, we can assess and address the ethical, legal and societal challenges to the large-scale deployment of urban geothermal technologies.
WP6: Integration and recommendations for policy and regulation
WP6 integrates across the technical data and model predictions, economic analysis and social science from WPs 1-5, providing translation to industrial and policy audiences. It delivers concise and accessible technical data and guidance to inform the regulatory frameworks and de-risk commercial implementation of urban geothermal technolgies, and derives policy recommendations for local and national government to stimulate geothermal deployment,