Dr Sean Watson

  • Research Associate (Systems Power & Energy)

Biography

I am a versatile engineer and geoscientist, committed to developing sustainable solutions to meet the challenges faced by society.

In 2015, I graduated with an MEng in Civil Engineering at the University of Glasgow. I then undertook a PhD, also at the University of Glasgow, which investigated the potential deep geothermal energy resource present in Upper Devonian aged sandstones beneath the City of Glasgow and it’s surrounding conurbation. Following my PhD, I held a Research Associate position on the ‘eDigiT2Life’ project, which developed Digital Twin models of Higher Education buildings to optimise their energy use and performance. I then spent 3 years in industry as a geothermal engineer, working on developing geothermal energy systems for community groups, public sector and private sector organisations in the UK.

I rejoined the University of Glasgow in June 2025 as a Research Associate to work on the THERMOCAL project, which investigates the thermal properties of Caledonian aged rocks as a means of de-risking geothermal energy projects in Scotland, Norway and Northern Ireland.

Research interests

I enjoy working on holistic, multi-disciplinary projects in the field of energy and sustainability. I have particular interest in the following areas of research:

  • Geothermal Energy Engineering
  • Geological Characterisation of Geothermal Energy Resources
  • Geophysical Modelling and Interpretation
  • Heat Flow and Fluid Flow
  • Thermal Energy Storage
  • Repurposing Legacy Energy Assets
  • Energy Use in the Built Environment
  • Geospatial Mapping of Energy Supply and Demand
  • Community-Scale Sustainable Energy Solutions

Publications

List by: Type | Date

Jump to: 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2015
Number of items: 18.

2025

Mouli-Castillo, Julien ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0811-6780, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Nandagavi, Prathik, Breunig, Hanna, Swan, Leah, Smith, Sam and Townsend, David (2025) Towards Investor-Ready Business Models for Mine Water Heat Systems: Regulatory, Technical, and Operational Insights for the Heat Geobattery. EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025. (doi: 10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17354)

Kolo, Isa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7709-0716, Brown, Christopher S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-6031, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Lyden, Andrew, Friedrich, Daniel and Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X (2025) Surface–subsurface modelling of seasonal borehole thermal energy storage for a university building. Journal of Energy Storage, 113, 115598. (doi: 10.1016/j.est.2025.115598)

Brown, Christopher ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-6031, Kolo, Isa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7709-0716, Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X, Friedrich, Daniel and Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188 (2025) Investigating Mixed-Circuit Injection-Extraction Strategies Between Borehole Heat Exchangers in a Cooling Dominated System. EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025. (doi: 10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3141)

2024

Brown, C.S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-6031, Kolo, I. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7709-0716, Lyden, A., Franken, L., Kerr, N., Marshall-Cross, D., Watson, S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Falcone, G. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X, Friedrich, D. and Diamond, J. (2024) Assessing the technical potential for underground thermal energy storage in the UK. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 199, 114545. (doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2024.114545)

2023

Morrison, Luke, Brown, Christopher S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-6031, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Kolo, Isa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7709-0716 and Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X (2023) Understanding the Impact of Paleoclimate Corrections on the Cheshire Basin with Application to Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers. The 10th UK Geothermal Symposium, London, UK, 20-22 Nov 2023.

Nibbs, William, Brown, Christopher S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-6031, Kolo, Isa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7709-0716, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188 and Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X (2023) Repurposing Onshore Wells for Geothermal Use in the United Kingdom: Application as Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers. In: World Geothermal Congress 2023, Beijing, China, 4-6 Sept 2023,

2021

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X and Westaway, Rob (2021) Repurposing Hydrocarbon Wells for Geothermal Use in the UK: a Preliminary Resource Assessment. In: World Geothermal Conference 2020+1, Reykjavik, Iceland, 24-27 October 2021,

Willems, Cees J.L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4502-8598, Cheng, Chaojie, Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Minto, James, Williams, Aislinn, Walls, David, Milsch, Harald, Burnside, Neil M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4110-2623 and Westaway, Robert (2021) Permeability and mineralogy of the Újfalu Formation, Hungary, from production tests and experimental rock characterization: implications for geothermal heat projects. Energies, 14(14), 4332. (doi: 10.3390/en14144332)

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Westaway, Rob and Burnside, Neil ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4110-2623 (2021) Revaluating Glasgow’s Heat Flow Dataset to Account for Corrections for Palaeoclimate: a Case Study of the Maryhill Borehole. In: World Geothermal Congress 2021, Reykjavik, Iceland, 24-27 October 2021,

2020

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X and Westaway, Rob (2020) Reply to comment by Alison A. Monaghan, David A.C. Manning, and Zoe K. Shipton on ‘Repurposing hydrocarbon wells for geothermal use in the UK: the onshore fields with the greatest potential, by Watson et al. (2020)’. Energies, 13(23), 6382. (doi: 10.3390/en13236382)

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188 and Westaway, Rob (2020) Borehole temperature log from the Glasgow Geothermal Energy Research Field Site: a record of past changes to ground surface temperature caused by urban development. Scottish Journal of Geology, 56(2), pp. 134-152. (doi: 10.1144/sjg2019-033)

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X and Westaway, Rob (2020) Repurposing hydrocarbon wells for geothermal use in the UK: the onshore fields with the greatest potential. Energies, 13(14), e3541. (doi: 10.3390/en13143541)

2019

Westaway, Rob, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Williams, Aaron, Harley, Tom and Middlemiss, Richard ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2095-6750 (2019) Geometry of the Butterknowle Fault at Bishop Auckland (County Durham, UK), from gravity survey and structural inversion. Technical Report. Earth and Space Science Open Archive. (doi: 10.1002/essoar.10501104.1).

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Westaway, Rob and Burnside, Neil M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4110-2623 (2019) Digging deeper: the influence of historic mining on Glasgow’s subsurface thermal state to inform geothermal research. Scottish Journal of Geology, 55(2), pp. 107-123. (doi: 10.1144/sjg2019-012)

Watson, S.M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Falcone, G. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X and Westaway, R. (2019) Repurposing Hydrocarbon Wells for Geothermal Energy Production and Storage. All-Energy Exhibition and Conference, Glasgow, UK, 15-16 May 2019.

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Westaway, Rob and Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X (2019) A Review of Deep Geothermal Energy and Future Opportunities in the UK. In: European Geothermal Congress 2019, The Hague, The Netherlands, 11-14 Jun 2019,

2018

Gluyas, J.G. et al. (2018) Keeping warm: a review of deep geothermal potential of the UK. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, 232(1), pp. 115-126. (doi: 10.1177/0957650917749693)

2015

Younger, Paul L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7321-8479, Feliks, Michael E.J., Westaway, Robert, Mccay, Alistair T. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8174-9093, Harley, Thomas L., Elliott, Thomas, Stove, Gordon D.C., Ellis, Jenny, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188 and Waring, Andrew J. (2015) Renewing the Exploration Approach for Mid-Enthalpy Systems: Examples from Northern England and Scotland. In: World Geothermal Congress 2015, Melbourne, Australia, 19-25 April 2015,

This list was generated on Sun Jul 20 01:37:11 2025 BST.
Jump to: Articles | Research Reports or Papers | Conference or Workshop Item | Conference Proceedings
Number of items: 18.

Articles

Kolo, Isa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7709-0716, Brown, Christopher S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-6031, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Lyden, Andrew, Friedrich, Daniel and Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X (2025) Surface–subsurface modelling of seasonal borehole thermal energy storage for a university building. Journal of Energy Storage, 113, 115598. (doi: 10.1016/j.est.2025.115598)

Brown, C.S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-6031, Kolo, I. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7709-0716, Lyden, A., Franken, L., Kerr, N., Marshall-Cross, D., Watson, S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Falcone, G. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X, Friedrich, D. and Diamond, J. (2024) Assessing the technical potential for underground thermal energy storage in the UK. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 199, 114545. (doi: 10.1016/j.rser.2024.114545)

Willems, Cees J.L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4502-8598, Cheng, Chaojie, Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Minto, James, Williams, Aislinn, Walls, David, Milsch, Harald, Burnside, Neil M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4110-2623 and Westaway, Robert (2021) Permeability and mineralogy of the Újfalu Formation, Hungary, from production tests and experimental rock characterization: implications for geothermal heat projects. Energies, 14(14), 4332. (doi: 10.3390/en14144332)

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X and Westaway, Rob (2020) Reply to comment by Alison A. Monaghan, David A.C. Manning, and Zoe K. Shipton on ‘Repurposing hydrocarbon wells for geothermal use in the UK: the onshore fields with the greatest potential, by Watson et al. (2020)’. Energies, 13(23), 6382. (doi: 10.3390/en13236382)

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188 and Westaway, Rob (2020) Borehole temperature log from the Glasgow Geothermal Energy Research Field Site: a record of past changes to ground surface temperature caused by urban development. Scottish Journal of Geology, 56(2), pp. 134-152. (doi: 10.1144/sjg2019-033)

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X and Westaway, Rob (2020) Repurposing hydrocarbon wells for geothermal use in the UK: the onshore fields with the greatest potential. Energies, 13(14), e3541. (doi: 10.3390/en13143541)

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Westaway, Rob and Burnside, Neil M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4110-2623 (2019) Digging deeper: the influence of historic mining on Glasgow’s subsurface thermal state to inform geothermal research. Scottish Journal of Geology, 55(2), pp. 107-123. (doi: 10.1144/sjg2019-012)

Gluyas, J.G. et al. (2018) Keeping warm: a review of deep geothermal potential of the UK. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part A: Journal of Power and Energy, 232(1), pp. 115-126. (doi: 10.1177/0957650917749693)

Research Reports or Papers

Westaway, Rob, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Williams, Aaron, Harley, Tom and Middlemiss, Richard ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2095-6750 (2019) Geometry of the Butterknowle Fault at Bishop Auckland (County Durham, UK), from gravity survey and structural inversion. Technical Report. Earth and Space Science Open Archive. (doi: 10.1002/essoar.10501104.1).

Conference or Workshop Item

Mouli-Castillo, Julien ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0811-6780, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Nandagavi, Prathik, Breunig, Hanna, Swan, Leah, Smith, Sam and Townsend, David (2025) Towards Investor-Ready Business Models for Mine Water Heat Systems: Regulatory, Technical, and Operational Insights for the Heat Geobattery. EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025. (doi: 10.5194/egusphere-egu25-17354)

Brown, Christopher ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-6031, Kolo, Isa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7709-0716, Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X, Friedrich, Daniel and Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188 (2025) Investigating Mixed-Circuit Injection-Extraction Strategies Between Borehole Heat Exchangers in a Cooling Dominated System. EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025. (doi: 10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3141)

Morrison, Luke, Brown, Christopher S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-6031, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Kolo, Isa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7709-0716 and Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X (2023) Understanding the Impact of Paleoclimate Corrections on the Cheshire Basin with Application to Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers. The 10th UK Geothermal Symposium, London, UK, 20-22 Nov 2023.

Watson, S.M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Falcone, G. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X and Westaway, R. (2019) Repurposing Hydrocarbon Wells for Geothermal Energy Production and Storage. All-Energy Exhibition and Conference, Glasgow, UK, 15-16 May 2019.

Conference Proceedings

Nibbs, William, Brown, Christopher S. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4422-6031, Kolo, Isa ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7709-0716, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188 and Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X (2023) Repurposing Onshore Wells for Geothermal Use in the United Kingdom: Application as Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers. In: World Geothermal Congress 2023, Beijing, China, 4-6 Sept 2023,

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X and Westaway, Rob (2021) Repurposing Hydrocarbon Wells for Geothermal Use in the UK: a Preliminary Resource Assessment. In: World Geothermal Conference 2020+1, Reykjavik, Iceland, 24-27 October 2021,

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Westaway, Rob and Burnside, Neil ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4110-2623 (2021) Revaluating Glasgow’s Heat Flow Dataset to Account for Corrections for Palaeoclimate: a Case Study of the Maryhill Borehole. In: World Geothermal Congress 2021, Reykjavik, Iceland, 24-27 October 2021,

Watson, Sean M. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188, Westaway, Rob and Falcone, Gioia ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8206-673X (2019) A Review of Deep Geothermal Energy and Future Opportunities in the UK. In: European Geothermal Congress 2019, The Hague, The Netherlands, 11-14 Jun 2019,

Younger, Paul L. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7321-8479, Feliks, Michael E.J., Westaway, Robert, Mccay, Alistair T. ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8174-9093, Harley, Thomas L., Elliott, Thomas, Stove, Gordon D.C., Ellis, Jenny, Watson, Sean ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2218-9188 and Waring, Andrew J. (2015) Renewing the Exploration Approach for Mid-Enthalpy Systems: Examples from Northern England and Scotland. In: World Geothermal Congress 2015, Melbourne, Australia, 19-25 April 2015,

This list was generated on Sun Jul 20 01:37:11 2025 BST.

Research datasets

Jump to: 2021
Number of items: 1.

2021

Willems, C., Cheng, C., Watson, S., Minto, J., Williams, A., Walls, D., Milsch, H., Burnside, N. and Westaway, R. (2021) Mezőberény X-CT imagery. [Data Collection]

This list was generated on Sat Jul 19 20:35:43 2025 BST.

Sean Watson