Europska mreža za poticanje široke implementacije energetske geokonstrukcije

Energy geostructures are a special type of ground heat exchanger installed within ground contact structures, such as retaining walls, piles, tunnels etc. They are a relatively mature technology whose physical behaviour has been studied. However, both technical and non-technical barriers still prevent actual implementation at a large scale. Some of the challenges may be related to: (1) Integration issues, including of shallow geothermal energy with other renewables, and of energy geostructures with other shallow geothermal sources; (2) Upscaling from the mastering of individual structures to the planning of geothermal district heating and the connection with the city scale; (3) Sustainability in the long term; (4) The absence of a database of knowledge regarding existing energy geostructure implementation and performance; (5) Retrofitting of existing buildings and/or existing geostructures; (6) Non-technical issues related to legislation, financial incentives, social impact, lack of standardization etc. The aim of this COST Action is to gather all needed information to reduce these barriers and foster development by creating a multi-disciplinary network between the different stakeholders.
Project outcomes:

• Development of a complete collaborative network of experts with a critical mass to enhance large-scale implementation of EGS

• Bringing together local authorities, communities, developers, designers, architects, academics, contractors to ensure the consistency of the framework developed and the dissemination of the outputs

• Development of a plan to fill up technical and non- technical knowledge gaps through future collaborations

• Utilization of multidisciplinary approaches to reduce barriers to knowledge exchange between diverse stakeholders

• Harmonisation and integration of research outputs to increase the visibility of existing experience of EGS.