Direct geothermal energy: harnessing an emerging technology

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To mitigate the impacts of climate change, the demand for renewable energy technologies with low greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is rapidly becoming a global priority. Direct geothermal systems use shallow ground as a heat source and sink for heating and cooling buildings, using ground heat exchangers (GHEs) and heat pumps. Substituting common heating and cooling systems with geothermal ones can reduce energy consumption by up to 75 per cent and thus greenhouse gas emissions, since 91 per cent of electricity comes from fossil fuels in Australia. This project aims to develop new full scale physical and numerical models which will allow studying the effects of GHE configuration and intermittent use on efficiency and which will lead towards improving the poor and scarce existing design techniques.