DOE invests $6 million in geothermal heating and cooling technologies
Diana Aoun | June 30, 2023Researchers from Oklahoma State University (OSU) are part of a U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) team that will receive $6 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to support the expansion of geothermal heating and cooling technology deployment at federal sites. Geothermal heating and cooling is considered renewable, versatile and crucial for decarbonizing buildings and the economy.
The project's objective is to provide technical assistance for geothermal energy deployment, enabling the reduction or replacement of electricity demand, grid peak loads and enhancing resiliency and security of local energy systems.
Geothermal heat pumps use the constant underground temperatures of the shallow earth as thermal storage that enables efficient heating and cooling. Systems can vary in the type of collector and connections used. Source: DOE (Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy)
The project focuses on large-scale renovations, considering multiple buildings connected together, rather than individual structures. Ground source heat pumps utilize the Earth's constant temperature as the exchange medium, reducing energy consumption for heating and cooling. OSU's role is to assist in system design for these large-scale projects and further improve existing software developed for ground heat exchanger design. The software enhancements will include better modeling of above-ground system components and accounting for groundwater flow, optimizing economic benefits through evaluating different ground heat exchanger options and system changes.
The team, led by ORNL, includes the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, U.S. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, U.S. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Illinois State Geological Survey, International Ground Source Heat Pump Association and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The project aims to achieve its goals within two years through activities such as data analysis, resource characterization, site surveys, and geothermal heating and cooling system design at federal sites.
The anticipated outcome of OSU's involvement is an improved functionality of the design software, making it easier for engineers to create high-quality designs for energy-efficient ground source heat pump systems. This advancement aims to reduce barriers to the adoption of such systems, contributing to energy efficiency and decarbonization efforts.
I have A well loop system. 27 years now. Water Furnace unit. By product, is of course hot water. This is a single home system that was the pioneer system for DTE energy. I was the person who asked for the 6 million dollar investment from DTE, in such a residental system. This program was shut down after only 2 months.
The system was so efficient that every single convert or total new, by design system lowered the electric bill by a minimum of 45% to ( like mine ) 65 %. This was fine for me and those few others until the * standard waiting period * used by most utilities expired. This waiting period is not a law. It is a system that the results of your investment in the proficenicy of geo-thermol heating and cooling will be subjected to. It is a wait and eliminate the benift, by rate control, removal of the rate time of day rates that eliminate the benifits of less energy use.
I am suggesting that some effort must be made to counter the results of such practices by all utilities. They simply change the rate policy to eliminate or counter the economic and energy efficiencies to benifit their bottom line.
The public Service Commisions of each individual state is usually where the utility efforts will be made to mitigate any improvements or results of your efforts acheive geo-thermol improvements. I would appreciate any suggestions your team may come up with to fight this that you can suggest to me to present to my goveror of the the state of Michigan as he, the second in command in Mi. has expressed a intrest to me in such a effort.
Side note the utilities of this nation are invested in not just the supply of energy to thier customers, but the very value of the carbor fuels them selves, the transportation of those carbon fuels the rail cars, The rails them selves and the transmission of the carbon fuel usage by the national grid. The transmission lines.