Smart Geotherm aims at using geothermal, thermal mass and other techniques to create nearly zero-energy buildings.
Status
Closed project
Period
-
Smart Geotherm aims at using geothermal, thermal mass and other techniques to create nearly zero-energy buildings. We do this with all of the project partners by insulating the buildings in such a way that the net heat requirement can be largely completed by renewable energy. Aside from that we also use intelligent and integrated techniques, such as:
- Short or long term thermal energy storage systems in the structural mass (thermal mass) or in the soil (cold-heat storage, Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) system, energy piles), whether or not combined with more flexible storage systems (Phase Changing Materials,…)
- Building and disseminating knowledge, applications and new developments in the field of ground coupled heat pumps
- Developing smart control systems
- A maximum feeding of the process by cheap or renewable energy
Smart Geotherm consisted of four modules:
- The demand for thermal energy
- The offer of thermal energy
- The buffering or storage of thermal energy
- The matching of demand, offer and buffering by an intelligent control algorithm

Contact
Lieve Helsen
Professor Applied Mechanics and Energy Conversion Section at EnergyVille/KU Leuven