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The research project ran from September 2019 to May 2024. The project partners are the two geothermal energy operators Stadtwerke München GmbH (SWM) and Innovative Energie für Pullach GmbH (IEP), the scientists from the KIT – Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and Erdwerk GmbH Erdwerk GmbH, which supported the research project with its geological and drilling expertise. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy funded the project with a budget of 4.7 million Euros submitted by the Project Management Jülich (PTJ).

Benefits for geothermal operators

The multi-year collaboration between operators of geothermal plants and KIT researchers was divided into various work packages. From the collection of data and the installation of various measuring devices and stations to the construction of a prototype for a reservoir management system and finally the communication of the results to the public and a specialized audience.

Here is a condensed presentation

• how the researchers and the geothermal operators worked together
• what data they collected
• where and with what technical equipment they collected new data, listened into the subsurface and scanned the earth’s surface
• what insights the data provided
• and how the operators of geothermal plants can benefit from it.

“The fact that a fiber optic cable, which we cemented behind the casing at a depth of up to 692 meters during the drilling for deep geothermal energy in Schäftlarnstraße in Munich, provides evaluable data and can thus contribute to the recording and evaluation of microseismicity was my personal highlight,” says geophysicist Katja Thiemann from SWM.

It is important to all research project participants that the operators work closely together across the boundaries of the individual geothermal energy companies in future. “With geothermal energy, we are sitting on a treasure here in southern Bavaria that we can use to the benefit for citizens and the climate,” says Ralph Baasch from IEP. The heat transition is really picking up speed right now. As deep geothermal energy is base load-capable and is considered an almost unlimited source of energy, it is the driver of the heating transition.

Geothermal energy can cause mini-shocks that are imperceptible to humans. In geoscientific jargon, this is called microseismicity. The INSIDE research project has investigated what exactly happens during these stress shifts underground. “We are really ahead of the wave with our results,” says Ralph Baasch from the IEP. “Of course, data collection and analysis is challenging,” says geophysicist Emmanuel Gaucher from KIT. In his view, one operator alone cannot do it. “But it can work in a network,” he and his INSIDE project colleagues are convinced.