UPLIFT | Unlocking Petrothermal Lithologies through Innovative Fracture Technologies

The core of UPLIFT is to demonstrate how multi-stage EGS stimulation can be efficiently implemented in Europe, while reducing technical, social, and environmental risks.
UPLIFT brings together key European EGS industry and research institutions to answer 4 critical questions:

1. How can we reliably improve geothermal well productivity across diverse geological settings?
2. How can we mitigate injection-induced seismicity in urban areas?
3. How can we perform cost-efficient multi-stage stimulation treatments?
4. How can we increase social acceptance of Enhanced Geothermal System technologies?

We will address these questions by developing a new Micro-Turbine Drill bottom-hole assembly (MTD-BHA) prototype for improved reservoir access and adaptive stimulation designs for more efficient and safe permeability enhancement. To support this, we will conduct laboratory experiments on the self-propping (water only) stimulation behaviour of representative European basement rocks, benchmark these results against acid and proppant-based stimulation methods, and compare water-only with proppant-based stimulation treatments in the Bedretto Underground Laboratory. Additionally, we will develop high-fidelity, physics-based Digital Twins to guide detailed EGS, MTD, and stimulation design, as well as fast surrogate models for real-time operational decision-making. Finally, UPLIFT will advance the local seismic monitoring network at Czechia’s leading energy research site RINGEN in Litoměřice, to achieve high-resolution, real-time reservoir imaging, quantify induced seismicity risks, and implement adaptive risk mitigation strategies during operations.
Together, these developments will be demonstrated in a field-scale EGS pilot, where we will deliver innovative multi-stage hydraulic stimulation in crystalline basement rocks, under European societal constraints.   Our main objective is to demonstrate an advanced EGS concept that reliably enhances productivity, increases efficiency, and lowers development time, cost, and risks, such that EGS can become a sustainable and economically viable source of energy.  In the end, UPLIFT will allow our team’s technologies and state-of-the-art knowledge to integrate the European societal and legal context with the recent multistage stimulation success in the US, to unlock the petrothermal energy potential in Europe, facilitating a significant increase in renewable electricity and heat provision by deep geothermal energy.