The largest known thermal anomaly of Germany is located in the subsurface of the Campus North of KIT. Deviating from the mean geothermal gradient that predicts about 100°C on 3000 m depth, in the area of Campus North, temperatures of up to 170°C in 3000m depth were observed in former production and exploration wells of the Leopoldshafen hydrocarbon field. It has been shown in many geothermal fields in the Upper Rhine valley that such anomalies are linked to natural hydrothermal circulation in fractured reservoirs in the deep sediments of the valley or even the crystalline basement rock. In addition, comparably shallower and younger sediments include sandstones and carbonates with high storage potential. This is most evident from the occurrence of hydrocarbon reservoirs such as the Leopoldshafen field.

The Helmholtz Renewable Energy Program at KIT has already installed the infrastructure MoNiKa, a modular low temperature power plant, to investigate heat exchanger and the binary cycle for sector coupling. MoNiKa will be included also into the Energy Lab 2.0. The focus of research in PoF4 will be the heat sector, which currently produces about 50% of the CO₂ emissions in Germany. Major objectives are an environmentally friendly utilisation of geothermal heat and “high temperature” heat storage. The latter will be addressed in the new KIT infrastructure DEEPSTOR. Storage of heat at temperatures of about 110°C such as the supply temperature of the district heating system at Campus North is worldwide new and bears different challenges. DEEPSTOR will contribute to their solution. Furthermore, heat production from the deep sediments is envisaged in the future.