De-Risking Shallow Geothermal Energy Storage in Challenging Urban Environments

In 2017 TNO and GFZ combined a dense accelerometer based high resolution surface seismic survey with a fibre optic based Vertical Seismic Profiling (DAS VSP) survey. The combined survey took place on a narrow patch of land in a challenging, noisy urban environment, in Berlin, Germany. The objective was to demonstrate the possibility to acquire a cost-effective high resolution seismic image of the shallow subsurface to de-risk a HT-ATES system in an urban environment, which is what we expect to be a typical setting for these systems.

We consider our work successful, as we demonstrated to be able to acquire a high resolution image in the depth domain, of the subsurface, in an area close to the research well Gt BChb 1/2015. Results from synthetic and field data show that by using these techniques it is possible to image the subsurface relatively easy, fast, at low cost and with low environmental impact, even in busy, seismically noisy urban areas. This high resolution image can subsequently be used to identify, track and asses the geometry of reservoirs and seals, creating a detailed structural image at and around a potential HT-ATES site, de-risking its development and later stable operation.