Geothermal & Alternative Energy

To support sustainability, geophysicists, chemists, and environmental scientists work together to develop new technologies to harness geothermal energy and other forms of alternative, renewable energy to power our planet in the most environmentally responsible way possible.

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On this page, you will find information about geoenergy, sustainable energy practices, what our scientists are working on this area, and the effect their work has.

What Is Geoenergy?

Geoenergy, also known as energy geoscience, is a term used when discussing geothermal energy, which refers to thermal energy created and stored within Earth. Harnessing the power of geothermal energy often involves tapping underground steam or hot water reservoirs and using that heat to power electrical generators.

The processes of turning geothermal energy into usable electrical power involves expertise, research, and technologies created by geologists, chemists, and geophysicists alike.

Geothermal and Alternative Energy Research

This area of science focuses on geothermal exploration and development, petroleum geosciences, and more, and it often operates at the intersection of geology and geophysics. Principles of geology address petroleum systems, model development for hydrocarbon occurrences, and reservoir quality assessment, while the principles of geophysics are often used to apply physical techniques to delineating hydrocarbon traps and informing on rock and fluid properties.

Geoenergy research also addresses the delineation of thermal sources, reservoir characterization, the hydrochemistry of deep hot water, and the environmental footprint of oil and gas production-particularly for unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs.

Given the virtually limitless amounts of heat generated by Earth's core, geothermal energy is a valuable renewable resource.

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Latest News in Geoenergy Research

Read some of the news stories about UAlberta scientists and their research as it relates to geoenergy.

Read alternative energy stories

 

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Who Is Working with Geoenergy?

The Faculty of Science is training the next generation of scientists in the latest advances in geoenergy and sustainable science practices in the disciplines of earth sciences, geology, chemistry, and geophysics.

Learn more about the faculty overseeing the latest geoenergy projects and their research interests below.

• Ben Rostron

  Ben Rostron's Research Focus: Petroleum hydrogeology

• Benoit Rivard

  Benoit Rivard's Research Focus: Geoprocessing, development and application of innovative hyperspectral techniques for mineral exploration, combined optical and radar airborne and satellite remote sensing for geologic mapping and environmental monitoring, infrared characterization of terrestrial materials

• Brian Jones

  Brian Jones's Research Focus: Carbonate sedimentology and diagenesis, hot spring/geyser precipitates and microbes, microbial activity in caves

• Dan Alessi

  Dan Alessi's Research Focus: Low-temperature geochemistry, water resources, environmental geomicrobiology

• Elena Konstantinovskaya

  Elena Konstantinovskaya's Research Focus: Fault architecture; influence of natural and hydraulic fractures and faults on the distribution and state of stresses, pressure regimes, and permeability; predictive models; seismic interpretation; petroleum geomechanics; structural geology; geological mapping

• Hans Machel

  Hans Machel's Research Focus: Carbonate diagenesis, sedimentary petrology and geochemistry, petroleum geology

• Jeff Gu

  Jeff Gu's Research Focus: Regional seismology and tectonics, seismic sources and inversions, induced earthquakes by wastewater or fracking injections, computations, ultrasonic waves in bones, geophysics

• John Waldron

  John Waldron's Research Focus: Tectonics, structural geology, evolution of deformed sedimentary basins

• John-Paul Zonneveld

  John-Paul Zonneveld's Research Focus: Sedimentology, ichnology, palaeoecology, and palaeontology

• Karlis Muehlenbachs

  Karlis Muehlenbachs' Research Focus: Stable isotope geochemistry, oceans, water rock interaction, paleoclimate

• Lingzi Sang

  Lingzi Sang's Research Focus: solar cell and battery technology, analytical spectroscopy, electrochemistry, material chemistry, hysteresis, electrode-electrolyte interfaces

• Long Li

  Long Li's Research Focus: Stable isotope geochemistry, paleoclimate and paleoenvironment, subduction zone processes (metamorphism and volcanology), astrobiology

• Martyn Unsworth

  Martyn Unsworth's Research Focus: Electromagnetic geophysics, plate tectonics, volcanology, geothermal energy

• Mauricio Sacchi

  Mauricio Sacchi's Research Focus: Statistical and transform methods for seismic data processing, waveform imaging and inversion in applied and global seismology

• Mirko van der Baan

  Mirko van der Baan's Research Focus: Signal processing, microseismicity and seismic wave propagation in anisotropic media

• Murray Gingras

  Murray Gingras's Research Focus: Ichnology, sedimentology, petroleum geology, modern sedimentary environments, stratigraphy, using ichnology and sedimentology to better understand hydrocarbon reservoirs

• Nicholas Harris

  Nicholas Harris's Research Focus: Sedimentology and sedimentary geochemistry, petroleum geology, hydrocarbon source rocks, tight gas sand reservoirs

• Stephen Johnston

  Stephen Johnston's Research Focus: plate tectonics, paleogeography, convergent margins, structural geology, paleomagnetism, oroclines, orogenesis, and geothermal energy