Professor Saar founded the Geothermal Energy and Geofluids group at ETH Zurich in 2015. The GEG researchers come from a wide range of geoscience fields and from engineering, computer science, and techno-economics. The group investigates reactive subsurface fluid and energy transfer, ranging from geothermal energy extraction to CO2 sequestration and, in particular, combinations thereof. One such combination is CO2-Plume Geothermal (CPG), which Prof. Saar co-invented and which combines CCS with geothermal energy extraction, resulting in full CCUS. In March 2023, Prof. Saar founded the CPG Consortium, which is scheduled to enter Phase II in the fall of 2025. The joint industry-academia consortium investigates a wide range of combinations CCS and geothermal processes and synergies, including, besides CPG, Geothermal Derisking of CCS (GDC), whereby geothermal energy extraction precedes later potential CCS operations at the same location, thereby reducing the financial risks of CCS while providing early revenue. Both CPG and GDC are simulated by TANGO (Techno-economic ANalysis of Geo-energy Operations), a numerical simulator developed by the GEG group.

Prof. Saar received his MSc. in Geology in 1998 from the University of Oregon and his Ph.D. in Geophysics in 2003 from UC Berkeley. After a postdoc at the University of Michigan in 2004, he was Professor and Gibson Chair of Hydrogeology and Geofluids at the University of Minnesota from 2005 through 2014 until arriving and building up his group at ETH Zurich in 2015.