Sustainable GeoEnergy

The most recent (opens in a new window)Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) report states that anthropogenic activity has caused an increase in greenhouse gas emissions and approximately 1.1°C of warming since 1850-1900. The report is clear that reaching net-zero carbon dioxide is required to stabilise the global temperature. 

Ireland has committed to reduce CO₂ emissions by 80% of 1990 levels across the electricity generation, heating and transport sectors by 2050.

The Sustainable GeoEnergy Group at the UCD School of Earth Science is dedicated to supporting the challenges of the Energy Transition through applied geoscience research. We focus on geological applications to reduce carbon emissions and provide alternative energy sources and storage, including research on:

• Geothermal Energy – tapping into heat resource within the subsurface;
• Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) – capture of CO₂ emissions produced from point-source emitters, followed by transport to underground geological storage and long-term isolation from the atmospheric system;
• GeoEnergy Storage – storing excess energy from renewable sources, and minimising waste, to help balance intermittency of supply. Examples of geoenergy storage include hydrogen, compressed air energy storage (CAES) & aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES).

 Source: (opens in a new window)Sustainable Earth, Berkeley Lab

The Sustainable GeoEnergy Group brings together different expertise within UCD, and beyond, under one umbrella to tackle multi-disciplinary projects relating to the Energy Transition in a coordinated approach.  We are aligned with government and industry initiatives to move forward applications in GeoEnergy research.

The Sustainable GeoEnergy Group has set up a new research initiative called the GET-SET project (Geo-storage in the Energy Transition: Science, Engineering, Technology) that aims to evaluate geostorage potential in Ireland for applications such CCS, hydrogen, CAES and ATES. An overview presentation from the iCRAG 2021: Resources for a Sustainable Society conference is available here.

Recent papers:

Open Access and PDF’s can be downloaded at the following links:

An Overview of Carbon Capture and Storage and its Potential Role in the Energy Transition
(opens in a new window)https://www.earthdoc.org/content/journals/10.3997/1365-2397.fb2022028 
Carbon Capture and Storage Potential in Ireland — Returning Carbon Whence It Came
(opens in a new window)https://www.earthdoc.org/content/journals/10.3997/1365-2397.fb2022035 
Overview of Deep Geothermal Energy and its Potential on the Island of Ireland
(opens in a new window)https://doi.org/10.3997/1365-2397.fb2023009 
English, J.M & English, K.L. (Apr 2023), Overview of Hydrogen and Geostorage Potential in Ireland. First Break 41(4).
Shannon, P., English K.L., Hanrahan, M., (2021), The Stratigraphic Nomenclature of the Irish Offshore Basins. Dept of Environment, Climate and Communications, Special Publication 2/21.
Part of a wider update of the Offshore Ireland Stratigraphic Framework : (opens in a new window)https://www.gov.ie/en/publication/d4923-the-standard-stratigraphic-nomenclature-of-ireland/ 

Conference presentations: 

Moscardini, R., English, K.L., Haughton, P., Raine, R., Cooper, M., English, J.M. (2023). A new study into the impact of Triassic reservoir quality on geothermal and energy storage potential of the Kish Bank Basin, through multi-disciplinary study of coeval basins in Northern Ireland, Ireland and Great Britain. Poster. Irish Research Geological Meeting, March 3-5th, 2023, Belfast.

English, K.L., Walsh, J., Manzocchi, T., Coughlan, M., McDermott, F., Childs, C., Roy, S., Henry, T., Bean C., Kiyan, D. (2022), Geoscience, renewable energy and subsurface storage. Oral Presentation. iCRAG 2022 Making a Difference, Dublin, Ireland. Dec 1st, 2022.

English, K.L., English, J.M., Dunphy, R., Blake, S., Walsh, J., Raine, R., Vafeas, N., Rodriguez-Salgado, P. (2022), Overview of Deep Geothermal Energy and its Potential on the Island of Ireland. EAGE Geoscience Energy Transition. Oral Presentation. Den Hague Netherlands, Nov 7-9th, 2022.

English, K.L.; English J.M., (2022), Geostorage potential offshore Ireland. Poster. EAGE Geoscience Energy Transition. Oral Presentation. Den Hague Netherlands, Nov 7-9th, 2022.

English, K.L., (2021), GET-SET: Geostorage in the Energy Transition: Science, Engineering and Technology. Oral Presentation. iCRAG 2021: Resources for a Sustainable Society Conference. Dec 1st, 2021.

English, K.L. (2018), The new standard stratigraphic nomenclature of offshore Ireland. Oral presentation, International Union for Quaternary Research (INQUA), Offshore Research Symposium, Geological Survey of Ireland.

For more information contact (opens in a new window)Kara.English@ucd.ie

Members of the UCD School of Earth Sciences involved with the Sustainable GeoEnergy Group include:

(opens in a new window)Kara English Assistant Professor of Sedimentology. Head of Sustainable GeoEnergy Group.

(opens in a new window)John Walsh Professor of Structural Geology. Co-Director Fault Analysis Group.

(opens in a new window)Peter Haughton Professor of Sedimentology. Head of School.

(opens in a new window)Frank McDermott Professor of Geochemistry. 

(opens in a new window)Conrad Childs Associate Professor. Co-Director Fault Analysis Group.

(opens in a new window)Tom Manzocchi Associate Professor. Co-Director Fault Analysis Group.

(opens in a new window)Joe English Adjunct Professor. Director of Stellar Geoscience Ltd.

Simon Todd Adjunct Professor. Co-founder of CausewayGT (Geothermal).

(opens in a new window)Pablo Rodriguez-Salgado Postdoctoral Researcher

(opens in a new window)Srikumar Roy Senior Research Scientist

Rioko Moscardini PhD Student