by Jens-Peter Lux: When we think about innovation in renewable energy, it’s easy to assume that the materials and breakthroughs of human design hold the greatest potential to power the green revolution…
From battery storage technologies that run on compressed air, to next-generation materials that conduct or store energy in ever more efficient patterns, innovation seems to rely on discovery. However, if we’ve learned anything from the last 300 years’ working to explore the earth’s surface, it’s that the keys to the future often lie dormant for millennia, right beneath our feet. So in renewables, innovation may in fact rely on rediscovery.
This way of thinking about geothermal energy sounds like something from science fiction, and until recently it may as well have been. The cost, imprecision, and risk associated with exploring for subterranean aquafer rendered the prospects of developing this specialist area into viable, scalable, source of energy was little more than a fantasy. But the picture is beginning to change. And in many ways, we have fossil fuels to thank for it.
Since 1737, DMT GROUP has been developing tools and technologies that allow us to glimpse beneath the surface of the earth. From our earliest work in the natural resources sector in the North Rhine Westphalia region of Germany, we have kept pace with modernity by ensuring that we take the skills and instruments derived from one discipline and find new applications for them as times and customs change. Today, the tools that once helped identify rich seams of coal across Europe can be applied to geothermal energy, creating a roadmap that can fast-track the development of one of the cheapest, most sustainable sources of renewable energy.
