Geothermal energy provides a renewable alternative to fossil fuels, but locating geothermal resources is difficult. Traditional methods of finding these resources are labor intensive and expensive.
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Zayo’s dark fiber for advanced seismic detection research
Zayo Group Holdings Inc., a global communications infrastructure provider, announced a collaborative research effort to use existing telecommunications fiber to map potential geothermal resources, particularly those lacking surface manifestations.
The Imperial Valley, known for its abundant but still unknown geothermal resources, became the center of the Imperial Valley Dark Fiber project in 2019.
The project aims to develop an improved method for identifying renewable geothermal resources for energy production.
This U.S. Department of Energy-funded research project in Imperial Valley, California, involves Rice University and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Zayo pointed out that conventional exploration of geothermal resources relied on a limited number of seismic sensors placed in specific areas.
Researchers at the National Laboratory and Rice University combined dark fiber with traditional seismic sensors, deploying thousands of sensors for a single project.
This innovative approach significantly reduces survey costs while still enabling crucial measurements every few meters.
The research results allow scientists to efficiently locate previously unknown geothermal resources, even in areas lacking surface manifestations.
Zayo’s dark fiber-facilitated sensor network allows Imperial Valley researchers to create more comprehensive subsurface maps.
Additionally, they leveraged Zayo’s dark fiber to explore various applications, such as earthquake detection.
According to a prepared statement by Dr. Jonathan Ago-Franklin of Rice University, “geothermal research requires an incredible amount of collaboration.”
Franklin added: “Zayo’s fiber optic infrastructure and expertise was a significant advantage to our team’s research.
According to a prepared statement from Zayo CEO Steve Smith, “we hope that the excellent work of the Berkeley Lab and Rice University team will inspire new conversations about how fiber optic infrastructure can be harnessed in new ways to have a positive impact on our future. »
In another fiber study, seismic activity is measured by the fiber itself. One of the most seismically active regions in the United States, Humboldt County, California, is where researchers from California Polytechnic University conducted experiments.
Buried fiber optic cables pick up specific frequencies and this information can be used to measure seismic activity.
For example, researchers can distinguish between seismic activity and a car by analyzing data collected on the ground using dark fibers.
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