As a partner in Geo.X, the GFZ has access to an excellent network of other geoscience institutions in Potsdam and Berlin. This largest regional concentration of geoscientific competence in Europe offers first-class cooperation and development opportunities.
The expansion of renewable energies as a contribution to the energy transition will increase the independence from fossil energy sources and at the same time reduce geopolitical risks for energy supply in the long term. To ensure the security of supply in the course of the transformation of our energy system, key technical and scientific challenges must be solved. The deep underground offers enormous potential for both the decarbonisation of the energy system and the increasing need for energy storage.
To exploit these potentials, we are developing solutions for the expansion of geological pore storage for energy-relevant gases in the TWh range as well as their upscaling on a technical scale. As part of the Helmholtz research project GEOZeit: Geotechnologies for a turnaround in energy supply in Germany - Energy and material storage in the deep underground the feasibility and assessment of stable reservoir properties will be investigated for a suitable pore storage pilot site, in preparation for and development of a hydrogen demonstrator in a saline aquifer.
In this research project, we are offering two PhD positions and one PostDoc position for ambitious and motivated researchers to undertake experimental investigations and numerical modelling regarding the fundamental processes associated with the geological storage of hydrogen. The candidates will be part of the Helmholtz-funded GEOZeit/HyPrepare project, in which preparatory studies for a future hydrogen saline aquifer demonstrator are being conducted.