PROJECT CONTENT:

The EU’s long-term climate strategy and the European Green Deal highlight the pivotal role of renewable energies for the continent’s decarbonisation objectives. However, renewable energy sources (RES) such as wind and solar require the deployment of large-scale energy storage systems to increase the security of supply. Furthermore, the IEA World Energy Outlook 2020 and recent IPCC reports stressed that the Paris Climate Agreement and EU targets cannot be reached without a substantial capture of CO₂ in hard-to-decarbonise sectors such as cement, iron, steel or fertiliser production. Considering the current energy crisis, it is also imperative to diversify the portfolio of RES, making increased use of constant sources such as geothermal energy.

The Horizon Europe-funded CEEGS project is therefore developing an innovative CO₂-based electrothermal energy and geological storage system. The concept aims at making feasible the integration of transcritical CO₂ cycles with underground energy storage achieved through simultaneous CO₂ geological storage and geothermal heat extraction and improving thus the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) and renewable energy storage technologies at a low environmental impact. CEEGS intends to bring the theoretical concept to a lab-scale proven technology, offering a cross-sectoral technology solution for the energy transition.

CEEGS is a 3-year long Horizon Europe funded project, that will develop a cross-sectoral technology for the energy transition, combining a renewable energy storage system based on the trans-critical CO₂ cycle, CO₂ storage in geological formations and geothermal heat extraction. This system has a negative CO₂ footprint as part of the stored underground CO₂ is diffused into the geological formation, resulting in permanent sequestration. The main objective of the project is to provide scientific proof of the techno-economic feasibility of the technology, raising the current low Technology Readiness Level (TRL) from 2 to 4 by addressing gaps in the interface between the surface trans-critical cycle and the subsurface CO₂ storage.

The project is based on three phases:

1. from theoretical principles to models, simulations and processes in which advanced numerical simulations integrate reservoir behaviour, wellbore design and surface plant design;
2. from models and simulations to systems/experimental verification addressing CEEGS integration and efficiency in energy systems, with digital functional and laboratory models developed and components validated with results from the CO₂ pilot-scale projects and;
3. social, economic and sustainability assessments where social acceptance studies, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) tools evaluate impacts and concept deployment with renewables, hard-to-decarbonise industries, district heating and cooling, or in grid balance.

The research consortium consists of 10 partners from 5 EU countries, with mulitdisciplinary skills on energy systems, energy storage, geology, geothermal systems and CO₂ geological storage. The project is coordinated by the University of Sevilla. GeoZS participates as an associate partner nominated by the Slovenian Geological Society.

Press releases:

CEEGS Press release PR1 – january 2023 (EN)

Follow us for more information:

• Website: https://ceegsproject.eu/
• Mailing list: https://bit.ly/CEEGSsubscription
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ceegs-project/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ceegsproject
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ceegsproject/

Project contacts:

Ricardo Chacartegui Ramirez
Coordinator
University of Seville
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Anita Stein
Communication manager
European Federation of Geologists
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

CEEGS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 101084376.