Geothermal energy
Learning geothermal energy interactively
The Leibniz Institute for Applied Geophysics LIAG offers an e-learning portal on the website GeotIS - freely accessible to everyone.
How is geothermal energy used in Germany? What are the different systems? And in which areas does it actually make sense to consider geothermal energy as a form of energy? Users of the new e-learning portal learn the background to these and many other questions. "Geothermal energy consists of many individual disciplines - this is what makes geothermal energy so difficult to comprehend. With our new e-learning portal we have started to unite the individual disciplines under the umbrella of geothermal energy. This makes geothermal energy as a form of energy more tangible, more concrete. The knowledge that is imparted can also be put directly into practice," says Prof. Inga Moeck, head of the Department of Geothermal Energy and Information Systems at LIAG, where the portal was developed. "The more experts we have in this field, the more geothermal energy projects can be successfully implemented. The potential is fundamentally there."
The target audience is correspondingly diverse: students, adults pursuing further education, but also the interested public with prior knowledge of the natural sciences and especially geosciences. Once a learning unit has been completed, users can check their progress by taking small tests, for example by drag and drop, memory games, quizzes or cloze tests. Everyone learns at their own pace, online and from any location.
GeoFaces: Using geothermal heat directly
The portal was developed within the GeoFaces funding project. The fundamental project objective was to collect, process, evaluate and disseminate data on the geological substratum. This is information that is important for planning geothermal energy projects. The focus was on data that can be used to directly exploit geothermal heat. The project partners entered these into the geothermal information system GeotIS, which is also the home of the new e-learning platform. "Both are moving geothermal energy forward: An extensive data collection and prospective experts who have the knowledge to use these data in a targeted manner," says Dr Thorsten Agemar, GeoFaces project manager at LIAG.
Data from around 30,000 drillings
The GeotIS information system provides the largest database in Germany for research and development work in the field of geothermal energy. The platform is unique in its kind worldwide. It includes data from 30,000 drillings - not only from geothermal energy, but also from crude oil and natural gas wells or thermal and mineral water or mining wells. Data and 3D models of the substratum are also available. This allows important conclusions to be drawn about how the geothermal potential is distributed in Germany.
GeotIS users frequently request the constantly updated 3D temperature model or energy statistics on heat and power generation resulting from geothermal expansion in Germany. Both are important factors in promoting geothermal energy as a building block of the energy transition.
