Month: June 2022

The GEOFIT Consortium celebrated its 9^th General Assembly in Sant Cugat for three days attending the European Shallow Geothermal Days, on the 14^th of June as part of the external communication activities of the project and the other two days for the presentation and summary of the project since the last General Assembly. The Municipality (Ajuntament) of Sant Cugat, organized the General Assembly to show another milestone within the project, this time in the demo site of the Pins del Vallés School, which is now commissioned and operating. We had the chance to visit the demo site premises and see the field where the boreholes and ground source heat exchangers have been performed and the technical room where the different equipment and systems are installed. 

The partners presented their progress regarding the different work packages and explained the work done during the last months after the 8^th General Assembly held in Perugia in December 2021. 

Now the different Work Packages and deliverables are in a final stage according to the work plan and they will be finished during the next 6 months before the end of the project in October 2022. The meeting was focused on the demo sites progress and it was shown the status of Perugia, Sant Cugat, and Aran as they are now being monitored to provide data about the performance of GEOFIT systems, and the Galway demo site status was also explained by the University of Galway in terms of the coming work to make the drillings and install the proper heating systems for the pool energy demand. Regarding the Sant Cugat demo site, the passive cooling system will be finally installed in July 2022. 

The parallel events planned to disseminate the project have been initiated in 2022, the attendance to the GeoTHERM Expo & Congress by GROENHOLLAND, AIT, and UPONOR has been the first milestone in the series of events to attend, followed by the European Shallow Geothermal Days and will be closed with the participation in the Conference on Modern Materials and Technologies (Perugia, June’22), the European Conference on Structural Control (Warsaw, July’22) and the European Geothermal Congress (Berlin, October’22).  

The GEOFIT webinars for external public are also in the coming agenda with the support of the project partners and the pilot owners. For more information about the different events attendance, results and webinars, please access the project website periodically. 

During the rest of the project until October 2022, the pending tasks regarding monitoring, implementation of GEOBIM platform for some of the pilots, the life cycle cost, and social impact analysis will be completed.  

Thanks for this fruitful meeting and let’s go for the final straight! 

The European Shallow Geothermal Days took place on 14 to 15 June 2022 at the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya (ICGC) in Catalonia, Spain. Taking the opportunity to celebrate the ninth general assembly of the GEOFIT project in Sant Cugat (Barcelona), the GEOFIT Consortium attended the event during the 14^th of June sessions.  

GEOFIT is now in the last stages of commissioning in the demo sites and the event has represented an opportunity to demonstrate the progress in geothermal systems for cooling and heating in retrofitted buildings. It was possible to show the different aspects covered by the project like, improved drilling technologies, the different geothermal energy extraction and ground source heat pumps, thermal analysis, data gathering, radar monitoring of buildings, digital management, and efficiency of the systems. 

Shallow geothermal energy represents a well-developed, non-volatile and clean technology for providing efficient heating and cooling across Europe. It is often associated with the use of ground source heat pumps but offers a wide range of applications such as geo-cooling or seasonal heat storage. Still, it is widely considered as a niche technology, however it has the potential to become a powerful game changer towards a decarbonized heating and cooling technology. The next decade from 2021 until 2030 is crucial to fulfil the SDGs defined in the “Clean Energy for all Europeans” initiative of the European Commission. All these aspects are covered by GEOFIT project, and it was possible to show these advances to the geothermal community. 

On behalf of the European Commission, the event connected remotely with the DG Energy Representatives, Eva Hoos and Eric Lecomte, who explained the REPowerEU (EU Revolution on Energy Plan) to develop geothermal heating and cooling, and the updated regulatory framework: Renewable Energy RES Directive. 

On behalf of the GEOFIT Consortium, Henk Witte, from Groenholland, presented the main project’s results in the afternoon session and it was possible to exchange this experience together with other related European projects and initiatives like GEO4CIVHIC, and leading entities and organizations in the geothermal technologies like GPC IP GEOFLUID, Geological Survey of Austria, DCL GEOENERGY – ITECON, among others. 

COMET Global Innovation as leader of the communication activities of the project, brought different communication materials to participate in the Poster presentations, including the project videos and other printed material. 

The Shallow Geothermal Energy Days was aimed at connecting policy makers to scientists, to promote and discuss opportunities for boosting this technology in the upcoming decade. 

GEOFIT was one of the exhibitors at the GeoTHERM, held on June 2^nd & 3^rd, 2022, in Offenburg (Germany). This expo & congress represents one of the final dissemination and exploitation actions of the project, which will end October this year. GEOFIT showcased its main innovations, from heat exchangers and heat pumps to heating and cooling systems.