Geothermal Community Heat Technology and Transfer
The increasing penetration of renewable sources, the extreme variability in energy prices, and the need for more resilient systems require a paradigm-shift in the heat production and distribution. Solutions that work optimally for both the utility companies and the community must be found.
GeoCoHorT aims to accelerate the transition to 4th generation district heating and cooling (4GDHC), by assessing, optimizing, and demonstrating the integration of shallow geothermal heat extraction with other renewable sources and smart buildings. The project takes place in Sweden, Ireland and the U.S.A.
Start
2022-12-01
Planned completion
2025-11-30
Main financing
Project manager at MDU
Background
The increasing penetration of renewable sources, the extreme variability in energy prices, and the need for more resilient systems require a paradigm-shift in the heat production and distribution. Solutions that work optimally for both the utility companies and the community must be found. 4GDHC networks operate at lower temperatures than traditional DH systems, offering opportunities for integration of low-temperature heat sources such as waste heat recovery, more efficient energy storage, and smart interaction with prosumers.
The consortium in this joint GEOTHERMICA and ERA-NET project mobilizes the capacity of research and solution providers, NETL (USA) and Mälardalen University/MDU (Sweden) to take the combined hydrogeological and 4GDH technologies to the next level, enabling Sweden and Ireland to lead others in the acceleration of the Energy Transition in EU.
Overall aim
GeoCoHorT aims to accelerate the transition to 4th generation district heating and cooling (4GDHC), by assessing, optimizing, and demonstrating the integration of shallow geothermal heat extraction with other renewable sources and smart buildings. The objective is to create a tool that optimizes DH network design for best exploitation of local renewable energy sources, which can be used by both utility companies for planning and investment strategies and the community (e.g., building owners) to improve the integration of smart buildings. A main case study in Limerick, Ireland will provide a demonstration site. The heat from the Shannon Estuary will be recycled and supplied to a smart district through heat pumps powered by intermittent renewable electricity and a suitable DH network design. The Swedish case study will involve a DH utility company and a residence industry with the aim of improving the sustainability of our cities, with fair solutions for the entire community.
Project goals
- How can heat be extracted from a shallow geothermal source such as the river estuary for DH purposes in a sustainable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly manner?
- What are the challenges in coupling shallow geothermal with 4GDH in presence of highly variable renewable electricity sources? What are the factors in the market that affect the success of such a solution?
- How will prosumers be integrated into the proposed micro-DH network alimented by geothermal heat?
- How can the citizens and city planners benefit from the proposed solution?
Activities in the project
Project activities include:
- Identifying the best way to employ shallow geothermal resources for integration with district heating to obtain the most energy gain and investigate the integration with intermittent renewable sources.
- Produce a user-friendly resource/demand matching tool which the community members can use to understand the cost/benefit of employing locally available renewable (such as geothermal and others) resources for heating a district in that community.
- Optimize 4GDH architecture with aid of physics-based and data-driven models for small and medium-scale networks integrated with secondary and non-conventional sources, including smart buildings (prosumers).
- Propose an attractive business model for 4th generation DH in small and medium scale towards smart and sustainable urban development for various EU and USA scenarios.
