Projects

In this work, a novel ATES system without a heat pump is proposed which now uses three wells (a triplet), solar heat collectors and a dry cooler. The use of heat pumps is avoided, vastly reducing the electricity required. The basic working principle shows great potential but needs development on robustness and monitoring, and integrated control of the building’s heating and cooling systems, as well as on the processes in the subsurface to ensure system longevity.

The WarmingUP collective brings together 38 participants to make collective heating systems reliable, sustainable and affordable for the heat transition. System and process innovations are necessary for improved designs, construction and management. WarmingUP wants to develop these innovations at an increased pace.

The European Plate Observing System – Netherlands (EPOS-NL) is a Dutch national research infrastructure for solid Earth sciences. EPOS-NL is a cluster of large-scale geophysical facilities for research on georesources. It develops innovative research facilities and integrates these with existing, world-class facilities into a coherent infrastructure.

The energy piles will warm and cool buildings through their pile foundations by using the natural temperature of the soil. An 18-meters deep hole is drilled in TU Delft’s Green Village, containing detailed instrumentation in the energy pile foundations in order to test and speed up their use on the market. The aim is to standardize the pile technology up to 30-meters-deep and help the industry build more eco-friendly constructions.

The energy quaywall utilises energy sheet pile walls to provide heating and cooling for space heating from water in canals and the soil adjacent to and under the canals. Heat storage is also provided by changing the temperature of the soil.

If it were possible to place seismometers and seismic vibrators anywhere below the ground in, for example, an induced-earthquake-sensitive area, we could measure the source mechanism of actual earthquakes, monitor the geomechanical state of the area over time, and quantify the ground motion caused by possible future earthquakes.

The general aim of Dimoprec is to accelerate energy efficient geothermal development. Through knowledge development, we minimize operational risks and prolong the lifespan of geothermal systems, reduce operational costs with environmental-societal risk minimization and improve subsurface integrity.

Due to large demand for ATES many urban aquifers experience scarcity of space to accommodate the demand for ATES systems. Under current practice ATES wells are placed at large mutual distance. This distance can be reduced when applying a self organization planning governance structure together with a Distributed Model-based Predictive Control (D-MPC).

TU Delft, Hydreco Geomec, Energie Beheer Nederland (EBN) and Shell are preparing a geothermal project on the TU Delft campus. The goal is to facilitate geothermal research and its application and to use the heat from the earth for the heating of buildings. This geothermal resource will be installed near the TU Delft campus and this unique location will make that this well will become part of a large-scale research programme.