Understanding More About Geothermal Systems

Even if you're not in facilities planning, you may want to be a bit more knowledgeable about "geothermal." If that's the case, this brief article by Bill Johnson (PDF), from Facilities Manager, is for you.

[T]he rising cost of energy has your institution focused on improving energy efficiency on campus. Now it’s up to you and your fellow campus facility managers to create mitigation strategies. One such strategy might be right there under your feet. Ground source geothermal energy enables us to tap into the earth’s stored renewable energy for heating and cooling facilities. Proper application of ground-source geothermal technology can have a dramatic impact on the efficiency and financial performance of building energy utilization (30%+). At the same time, using this alternative energy resource can provide significant contributions to an institution’s carbon reduction goals. How can you take advantage of this potential energy source to meet campus carbon footprint reduction goals, capital budgets, and return on investment?

This article reviews the state-of-the-practice and the kinds of engineering and programmatic expertise that are required to properly scale geothermal applications up to the institutional level and provide optimized benefits. Some pitfalls of poorly-designed systems are described, and approaches to avoid these are presented. But first, the big picture on geothermal systems.