PGK monthly meeting

Our guest will be Serge van Gessel (ECN part of TNO) and he will give a talk about: “Energy Transition: Challenges and Opportunities from a Subsurface Perspective”

Program:
17:00-18:00 hrs: Social hour
18:00-19:00 hrs: Lecture

Abstract:For almost 60 years, the Netherlands have relied on vast, domestic natural gas resources as a secure backbone for their energy supply. The end of this resource is now slowly coming into view as gas fields are either reaching end of their lifetime or face decisions for premature shut-in due to the negative impacts of gas production. Parallel to this development, there is an overall ambition to replace fossil resources by clean and renewable energy technologies in order to support the national goals towards a 95% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. But does that mean that the role of the subsurface is phasing out as well?

This presentation uses present-day energy supply as a reference point and reviews some of the trends and changes in energy production and consumption foreseen during the energy transition. In this respect new subsurface opportunities and services are evaluated, e.g. as provider of geothermal heat, storage capacity for CO2 or buffer capacity for various energy carriers. What can we say about the potential demand for these services in relation to the energy transition challenges and ambitions? What is the expected size of capacities in the Dutch subsurface and what are the challenges to deploy it? And finally, will we be dependent on subsurface resources and capacities in the future?