The research is not only carried out in the capital, but also in the municipalities of Amstelveen, Diemen, Ouder-Amstel, De Ronde Venen, Wijdemeren, Stichtse Vecht, Gooise Meren and Haarlemmermeer. A total of twenty thousand ground microphones have been placed there.
NH takes a look at one of the last measurements late on Monday evening, in Amsterdam-Sloten. A special truck drives down the street there. The ground shakes violently. Geophysicist Johannes van den Akker explains what happens:
“We send sound waves into the subsurface and they reflect on layers of the earth. We absorb those reflections with the small boxes.” In this way, data is collected about the deep subsurface. This information is important for the development of geothermal heat as a heat source.
Natural gas-free in 2050
This sustainable solution is already being applied in greenhouse horticulture and should contribute to a national goal: all homes must be free of natural gas by 2050. The soil is not everywhere suitable for the extraction of geothermal heat. This research maps out where geothermal heat production locations can be located.
Two wells are drilled to extract geothermal heat from the ground. “You use the rock between those two wells to heat the water,” Van den Akker explains. “There is a heat exchanger on the surface that extracts the heat from the water that you have pumped up from the ground. You then use that to heat houses.”
The goal is to use the first geothermal heat source in this region by 2030.