Resilient Energy, Water and Infrastructure

Grid-Scale Subsurface Energy Storage

Illustration depicting compressed air energy storage (CAES) in porous media systems. Illustration by W. Denn.

Understand and develop effective and affordable grid-scale energy storage in the deep subsurface, such as porous media compressed air energy storage, thermal energy storage, or hydrogen storage. Carry out research on capacity assessment, design of systems, performance analysis, assessment of risks, and specialized analysis of site-specific issues.

Overview

Grid-Scale Subsurface Energy Storage is an Energy Geosciences Division initiative within the Resilient Energy, Water and Infrastructure Program Domain.

Featured Projects

News & Events

EESA Faculty Affiliate Dan Stolper Awarded F.W. Clarke Award

May 8, 2020

EESA Faculty Affiliate Dan Stolper has received this year’s honor of the Geochemical Society’s F.W. Clarke Award, named for Frank Wigglesworth Clarke who has been called the father of geochemistry. The award honors a single outstanding contribution to geochemistry or cosmochemistry by an early-career scientist, published as a single paper or a series of papers…

Using Fiber Optics to Advance Safe and Renewable Energy

April 6, 2020

Berkeley Lab is working to address barriers to more widespread deployment of offshore wind in California, where floating wind turbines could be a viable option. (Credit: SarahGower/iStock) Fiber optic cables, it turns out, can be incredibly useful scientific sensors. Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have studied them for use in carbon sequestration, groundwater…

Dark fiber publication one of 2019’s top 100 Scientific Reports earth science papers

March 23, 2020

A research team led by EESA faculty scientist Jonathan Ajo-Franklin published a paper in Nature Scientific Reports that has been named one of the top 100 downloaded Earth science papers for the journal in 2019. Since its publication in February 2019, the paper, Distributed Acoustic Sensing Using Dark Fiber for Near-Surface Characterization and Broadband…

CEC Funds Research into How Wind Turbines Impact Wildlife

March 2, 2020

A project led by Yuxin Wu has been awarded a $2 million grant by the California Energy Commission’s Electric Program Investment Charge. He will lead research over about three years into using fiber optic sensing for real-time monitoring of how wind turbine failures, particularly in California’s earthquake-prone coastal regions, impact marine animals. Learn more about…

EGD Scientists Contribute Expertise About DOE Underground Research Laboratories

February 28, 2020

A number of countries have operated underground research laboratories (URLs) in different types of potential host rocks to support the development of deep geologic repositories for the disposal of radioactive waste. URLs enable research and development (R&D) activities to be conducted under subsurface conditions and at scales relevant to repository environments. Since 2012, the U.S.…

Berkeley Lab-CSUEB Internship Collaboration Is Changing Lives

Brenda Delgadillo Moreno felt she couldn’t afford to work as an unpaid intern while an undergraduate student at Cal State University East Bay (CSUEB)–as much as she knew it would help her future science career. Then last spring she was juggling full-time administrative work in the university registrar’s office with starting her master’s…