Mechanics – the key to unlocking subsurface resources for energy supply and storage

The International Symposium on Energy Geotechnics organized by EPFL’s Laboratory of Soil Mechanics brought together more than 250 research scientists and practitioners from 35 countries at the Swiss Tech Convention Centre in Lausanne to exchange ideas, practices and state-of-the-art developments.

The conference underscored the importance of experimental geomechanics for the benefit of industries dedicated to energy geostructures, induced seismicity, gas hydrate sediments, nuclear waste disposal and CO2-storage. Prominent, internationally recognized specialists opened each day with a set of keynote lectures. Participants took part in a short course organized within COST Action TU 1405 How to plan a successful thermoactive geostructure design? as well as in the Innovation Hub – a platform designed to bring practitioners, engineers and researchers together to debate about how to build sustainable infrastructure systems using the technology of tomorrow. Rounding off a successful conference the symposium visited the Mont Terry underground laboratory, an international research project for the hydrogeological, geochemical and geotechnical characterisation of a clay formation in the Swiss Jura region.

Patrycja BARYLA, Post-Doc, Laboratory of Soil Mechanics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, EPFL