HEAT BUBBLE | 2024

WHAT ARE THE PERFORMANCE AND IMPACTS OF PLANE UNDERGROUND STRUCTURES USED AS THERMAL BATTERIES?

The HEAT BUBBLE project investigates the performance (energy, geotechnical, and structural) and impacts (social, economic, and environmental) of plane underground structures (slabs and retaining walls) used for underground thermal energy storage.

In the U.S., there are ~55 million basements per the Census Bureau, primarily serving buildings in urban areas. If the slabs and walls of these basements were turned into geothermal structures, their thermal storage capacity would amount to 2400 TWh/year. If the storage efficiency of these plane geothermal structures were to be as low as 60%, it would be possible to reutilize ~1400 TWh/year, i.e., the equivalent of 30 times the thermal energy needs of the city of Chicago.

The overarching principle behind this project is that plane geothermal structures can be an efficient means to store thermal energy in the ground and their exploitation can increase the use of clean energy sources in underserved communities, ensuring social justice and contributing to the public good. With these premises, the overarching aim of this project is to explore the performance and impacts of geothermal structures used for thermal energy storage in different communities and develop and disseminate knowledge about this potentially revolutionary approach.