GEOFIT EXTERNAL TRAININGS SOON!

September & October 2022

The EU-funded project GEOFIT is an integrated industrially driven action aimed to deploy cost-effective enhanced geothermal systems on energy-efficient building retrofitting.

Upon the completion of the pilots, it is time to present and share the results, and bring all the experience accumulated to potential stakeholders.

GEOFIT is organizing three virtual trainings addressed to professionals and researchers in the field of geothermal energy, renewables and construction sector who wish to learn more about Smart Geothermal Systems.

1st Training: GEOFIT Training on Ground Source Heat Exchangers and Geothermal Heat Pumps

Date: 20th September 2022 | 10 – 12 CEST

Speakers: Henk Witte (Groenholland) and Michael Lauermann (AIT)

What to expect?

This webinar will present the research, development and assessment of various typologies of heat pumps and ground source heat exchangers (GHEX) studied in the EU-funded project GEOFIT which focuses on geothermal retrofitting across a range of building typologies (residential, tertiary, educational).   

Regarding GHEX, different typologies have been studied such as vertical and horizontal boreholes, slinky HEX, and earth baskets. Test campaigns were performed both in the lab and at the pilots and optimal geometries were studied aiding to the development of an engineering tool for optimal sizing of the GHEX which will be presented.

Regarding heat pumps, different typologies of electrical and heat-driven Heat Pumps (HP) have been optimised and implemented to include high temperature HPs with low GWP refrigerants, off-the-shelves HPs integrated in residential retrofitting projects, and hybrid HPs using gas and heat to supply heating and cooling. Results from analysis, prototyping and fielding will be presented.

2nd Training: GEOFIT Training on On-The-Ground Experience with Four Pilots

Date: 27th September 2022 | 10 – 12 CEST

Speakers: Antonio Galindo (COMSA), Romain Lhomer (NOBATEK), Claudia Fabiani (UNI PERUGIA), Avril Ní Shearcaigh (CFOAT) and Anna Mundet (Sant Cugat Municipality)

What to expect?

This webinar will present the field implementations of four pilots from the EU-funded project GEOFIT.

  • A residential single-family-house on the Aran Island (Ireland). The building was insulated, provided with an innovative radiant floor heating and with an electric heat pump connected to a vertical borehole.
  • An elementary school in Sant Cugat (Catalunya, Spain). A large vertical boreholes field is supplying heat to an electric heat pump replacing some of the existing gas boilers. The horizontal connection boreholes field – technical room was achieved via horizontal directional drilling. A high temperature radiant ceiling system is providing free cooling in summer exploiting the vertical boreholes.
  • An office building in Bordeaux (France). A vertical borehole coupled to earth baskets are providing heat to a hybrid driven heat pump (gas- and electricity-driven) in an office building. The heat pump also provides cooling in summer.
  • A historic building in Perugia (Italy). The Sant’Apollinare Fortress was already equipped with a radiant floor heating system, which is now being supplied by a gas-driven heat pump. The heat pump also provides cooling in summer. Slinky geothermal heat exchangers have been installed.

The pilots in GEOFIT have resulted in a series of lessons learned and validation of scientific progress. Sharing these experiences is a key objective of the webinar.

3rd Training: GEOFIT Training on Radar Technologies for Ground Inspection and Structural Health Monitoring, Thermal Load Estimation of Buildings and Use of Digital Twin Management Software (GeoBIM)

Date: 11th October 2022 | 10 – 12 CEST

Speakers: Guido Manacorda (IDSGEO), Fabio Giannino (IDSGEO), Joan Tarragona (EURECAT), Alessandro Piccinini (NUI Galway), Andrea Frazzica (CNR ITAE), Giuseppe Dino (CNR ITAE), Hugo Viot (NOBATEK), Henrikki Pieskä (KTH), Adriaan Brebels (iLECO) and Mikel Borràs & Juan Ramón (IDP))

What to expect?

This third and final training webinar will present a set of supporting technologies and processes for geothermal retrofitting resultant of work carried out in the EU-funded project GEOFIT. Topics and results to be presented include: 

  • The use of Ground Penetrating Radars for soil inspection and Ground-Based Syntethic Aperture Radar for structural health monitoring / site quality assurance (with respect to risk)
  • Novel approaches and models to simulate the energy load of retrofitted buildings including the validation process
  • An advanced energy management system capable of making decisions based on energy tariffs
  • A newly developed digital twin environment called GEOBIM that including models of ground source heat exchangers

These technologies and their associated services / processes have been validated during the GEOFIT scientific program and pilot activities.

Don’t miss the opportuniy to learn about GEOFIT main findings and results, especially, how you can benefit from this technology!

CEN Workshop Kick-off Meeting

The consortium of the GEOFIT H2020 project, funded by the EU, has been working during 4 years on an integrated industrially driven action aimed at the deployment of cost effective enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) on energy efficient building retrofitting. This action includes the use of 5 demonstration sites as open case studies in 4 CEN member states and corresponding different climates, featuring different representative technical scenarios/business models.

The creation of a CEN Workshop to develop specific guidelines that aid to the viable and cost-effective use of advanced enhanced geothermal systems was identified by the project consortium as a very useful way to disseminate the GEOFIT project findings and results, in accordance with the dissemination activities carried out to facilitate the acceptance and utilization by the market of the developed solutions through the interaction with the standardization system.

Thanks to the project partner UNE, the CEN Workshop on ‘Design and installation guidelines for a building retrofitting concept based on EGS’ held its kick-off meeting last Tuesday March 29th, 2022.

The kick-off started with a brief presentation of all participants, followed by an introduction of the CEN/CENELEC and the Workshop concept. Several interested stakeholders were invited, and Marco Calderoni, as Geofit coordinator, gave a brief introduction of the project.

The Workshop structure was approved during the meeting (Marco Calderoni from R2M as WS chairperson, Ana Benedicto from UNE as WS secretariat, and Antonio Galindo from COMSA as the leader of the document writing, together will all WS participants – Geofit partners and open to everyone).

The main objective is to publish the CENELEC Workshop Agreement (CWA) by October 2022. During the kick-off, participants held first discussions on the first draft of the CWA.

For more information on the project plan, visit https://www.cencenelec.eu/news-and-events/news/2022/workshop/2022-02-25-egs/

GEOFIT at Sustainable Places 2020

On Day 3 of the 4-day virtual Sustainable Places 2020 (SP2020) conference, Thursday 29th October from 14.00 – 17.00 CET, Marco Calderoni from GEOFIT contributed to the “Renewable Heating and Cooling Solutions for Buildings and Industry Workshop”, and the presentations and video recordings are publicly accessible.

Banner for “Renewable Heating and cooling solutions for Buidlings and Industry” at SP2020

The workshop brought together a selection of H2020 EU-funded projects involving experts from the biomass, geothermal, solar thermal and heat pump sectors to discuss a common strategy for increasing the use of renewable energy technologies for heating and cooling for buildings and industry. Renewable energy technologies for heating and cooling are safe, clean, efficient and increasingly cost-competitive. The workshop comprised four thematic sessions, namely “RHC for industrial applications”, “Storage solutions for RHC support in buildings”, “Innovative solutions for RHC deployment in buildings”, and finally the one that GEOFIT presented in called “Demonstration actions for RHC in buildings”.

Marco Calderoni from R2M Solution presented the GEOFIT project and highlighted first lessons learnt based on experience at the five demonstration sites.

R2M Solution organizes the annual international Sustainable Places conference, and the recent 8th as usual focused on the built environment at building, district, and urban scales to include our transport and energy infrastructures. Renowned for showcasing results coming out of the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Programme via the participation of cutting-edge research and innovation projects, the scope of Sustainable Places is captured directly in its name. It involves designing, building and retrofitting the places we live and work in a more sustainable way.

A GEOFIT poster was also displayed in the virtual room of Sustainable Places 2020.

Participating projects wereSWS-Heating – HYBUILD – CREATE – TRI-HP – HYCOOL – SHIP2FAIR – SUNHORIZON – Heat4Cool – GEOFIT – SCORES – Innova microSolar – Hybrid BioVGE – RES4BUILD – SolBioRev – FRIENDSHIP

Chair of the workshop: Andrea Frazzica (CNR ITAE) – partner of GEOFIT

Third General Assembly in Vienna

From the 7th to the 9th of May the GEOFIT consortium gathered in Vienna to hold their third general assembly. The meeting was organised by AIT (Austrian Institute of Technology) in their premises located in Giefinggasse, which also put together a traditional Austrian dinner in the city centre for all partners to enjoy the food and carry on discussing emerging ideas.

Significant progress were made regarding the core hardware technology to be installed on the pilot sites during this three-day meeting. Very important decisions were made on the coordination of work packages. 

Highlights included the management of data gathering and analyses from the pilots’ hardware implementation, and reviewing the advances made regarding the advances on the overall system and building integration for efficient management.

AIT also organised a visit to their impressive lab premises where all partners could see by themselves the prospective advances that can be reached in geothermal energy development. The building itself had implemented energy efficient tools that help reduce energy consumption.

On top of the general assembly a very interesting stakeholder workshop was held on the 8th May with participation from AIT -that was also the organiser- GROEN, CDP and Uponor were all partners participated. 

The consortium closed the meeting  having established clear goals for the next 6 months and looking forward to the work ahead.

Meet the Pilots: Aran Islands

BY AVRIL NÍ SHEARCAIGH

The Aran Islands pilot site in this project is located on Árainn, the largest of the three Aran Islands on the west coast of Ireland. This pilot’s focus is based on residential buildings. The Killeaney Cottages, pictured below, were selected and invited to participate. Eight of the households here are interested in taking part in GEOFIT and having their current heating system replaced by a Geothermal heat pump.

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GEOFIT WORKSHOPS: Galway & Aran Islands

At the end of January we held two workshops in Ireland linked to two of our pilot sites, one located in Galway and the other in the Aran Islands. These pilot sites have different characteristics and represent different challenges for the demonstration of our project. In this post we will talk about the development of the workshops, as well as these two pilot sites, so that they can be better known.

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Geothermal Energy in Ireland & the GEOFIT Solution

On January 24th was held at National University of Ireland, Galway, a CPD Event open to the public on Geothermal Energy in Ireland and the solution of the GEOFIT project. The presentation was led by Ric Pasquali, President of the Irish Geothermal Association, and followed by talks on the GEOFIT project by Thomas Messervey from R2M and Gisela Soley from COMSA.

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Workshop in Perugia

From November 21 to December 6, 2018, a workshop was held at the Perugia demonstration site with the following objectives: to establish a channel of communication with local stakeholders, define their needs and requirements, include them in the design and finally gather information on the existing building. The workshop was conducted mainly with people who are directly involved in the building.

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