The Round Table on Underground Energy Solutions (UES) was organised by SCAUT (Swiss Center of Applied Underground Technologies), SUSPI (University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Southern Switzerland) and ESC (Energy Science Center) of ETH Zürich and took place in May 2022.
This Round Table was the follow up of the first Round Table which took place in September 2021. At that occasion 3 major topics were identified in the large field of underground energy solution which would justify being focused on our second Round Table:
• Underground energy storage (mainly seasonal storage) in urban areas: options, technologies etc
• Carbon capturing and storage (CCS)
At the 2nd Round Table, we also had an impulse presentation from Gianfranco Giudati from the ETH, followed by an open discussion and an exchange of ideas and experiences.
The following questions have been discussed:
• What are the potentials of underground energy generation & storage (UES)? Has the storage of heat and cold or compressed air the greatest potential for UES? What kind of prototype would be interesting to be followed from academia and industry? How could we collaborate?
• Which are the possibilities of CO2 capture and storage?
According to the discussions on the workshop, even if on certain technology fields, the return on investment concerning the elaboration of prototypes of new technologies is not likely to be short term, on the long run benefits are obvious. The willingness to act on new energy solutions is visible from the state, the industry, and the universities, too. That's why everyone agreed that the gap between industry and academia must be closed.
As for underground CO2 capture, not all Swiss regions are appropriate, because of unfavourable geology for this purpose, but in specific parts of the country there would be possibilities to turn theory to practice.
For the matter of Underground Energy Storage, it has a great potential in Switzerland that must be exploited.
As a conclusion, the academia will come up with more precise propositions and SCAUT is going to find the most matching industry partners.