WEBVTT

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[SQUEAKING]

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[RUSTLING]

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[CLICKING]

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PROFESSOR: Yeah.

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Next up, we'll
welcome to the stage

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Nicholas Fry, who is the
Thermal Energy Networks Market

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Lead for Jacobs.

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NICK FRY: All right.

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Good morning, everybody.

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As mentioned, I'm the Thermal
Energy Networks Market Lead

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for Jacobs in North America.

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So I primarily deal with
district energy systems,

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ambient temperature loops,
things of that nature.

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Single building
systems is something

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that I consult on
every once in a while,

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but we have other design teams
for that, generally speaking.

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So I will go through
some basic differences.

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I think it's hard to follow
Connor for a better introduction

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to ground-source
heat pump systems

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for standalone building systems,
but this should give you

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an idea of when we transition
to networks, the advantages

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that we can harness and use to
optimize our building, heating,

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and cooling systems
across large scales.

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So city-scale systems,
regional-scale systems,

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neighborhood is
easy in my opinion.

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So back to the basics
just a little bit.

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I'm sorry I wasn't
here yesterday.

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Hopefully, you got a
little bit of this.

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There are different completion
types for vertical ground heat

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exchangers that are
important in considerations

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when we're thinking about
a utility-scale product.

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So this has to be something
that is less capital intensive

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and can be paid for over
the duration of the system

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operation.

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Typically, A utility wants to
look at a 30 to 50-year time

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scale.

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Gas networks, they go out
to 70-year projections.

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So we want to make sure
that we reduce the capital

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costs at the beginning.

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The typical
ground-source completion

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in the United
States right now is

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conductive closed
loop vertical systems.

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Those are actually capital
cost intensive by comparison

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to open loop systems.

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Of course, you're leveraging
a reduction in operations

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and maintenance costs by
using the closed loop systems

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and going with
conduction dominant.

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You're sacrificing the potential
of taking the groundwater

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directly, and using that heat
exchange and the heat capacity

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it's offering to the system to
reduce the amount of drilling

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that you have to do.

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But we can also consider
geothermal networks

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as being multisource
and multisink.

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So we don't just
have to do drilling.

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We don't have to meet our
entire load with the drilling.

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And the buildings around us
have their own histories.

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So we have some
relic structures that

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are designed around
our steam systems.

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And to retrofit those, for
example, Empire State Building,

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quite a task.

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You can imagine that that thing
was built around a steam system.

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And you don't want to just gut
the iconic structure itself.

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So over time,
we're going to have

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to think about expanding on
the peripheries of our existing

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central systems.

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So you're going to encounter
various requirements

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on building entering
water temperatures that

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are going to
dictate how you have

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to put this system together.

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The temperature regimes
are going to vary.

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So you're going to encounter
perhaps combined heat and power

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systems when you're looking at
building stock decarbonization.

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And this goes into
something that is already

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a district energy unit.

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It's considered very
high efficiency.

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But you're also exposing the
owners to variable fuel cost.

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So in this case, I've got
biomass systems shown.

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But you can also have--

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you can also have
everything from coal

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to natural gas for these
combined heat and power systems.

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And you can think about
expanding with geothermal energy

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networks at the periphery
where these district energy

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systems exist.

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And so going into the
sources and sinks that

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exist across our geographic area
that we can leverage to decrease

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that capital cost at the
beginning of your project

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consideration and your
feasibility studies,

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one of the majors
that's taking its place

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in geothermal and hybrid systems
is wastewater energy transfer.

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There's a few different
manufacturers out there.

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You can either do
interceptor connects,

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which is those fluid conduits
that are exiting each structure,

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or running down
your neighborhood

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in a main collector.

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Or you can do an
effluent heat recovery.

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So in effluent
heat recovery, you

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have to go directly to
the sewage facility itself

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to recover the heat that
they need to reject.

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So all of those
effluent facilities

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are now exposed to
regulations that

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say they can't discharge
to surface water,

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as they have without
meeting a minimum,

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or rather, a maximum temperature
differential over the year.

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So we're seeing time and time
again, they have megawatts,

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like hundreds of megawatts, of
thermal just from single sewage

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facilities that they
need to discharge,

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and they don't have a
place to go with it.

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So imagine the possibility of
reducing your capital costs

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on drilling and making
these geothermal energy

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networks more viable.

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You can hybridize it directly
with the surface water

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that you want to perhaps harvest
heat from or reject heat to.

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But again, if you're going to
reject heat to that surface

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water system, you
have to operate

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within these future confines of
the projected regulations that

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say you have a maximum
temperature differential.

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It's actually quite simple
for new construction

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to meet that minimum
standard, because you

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can imagine that we built
a city on top of the Earth.

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We're actually influencing
the ground temperatures more

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than anything.

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And so our influence on surface
water, nearby surface water

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resources is quite high already.

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So you have to just
prove or disprove

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that your system
discharge is operating

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within those
environmental regulations.

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And if you reduce the
operating temperatures

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by implementing geothermal
energy networks for your HVAC

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systems, it becomes much
easier to meet that norm.

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And geothermal energy
networks, if we

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get into a lower
temperature regime

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like Connor had mentioned,
somewhere between 40 and 90

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degrees of operating across
a season between your highs

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and lows, you can also
introduce load sharing.

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So as that heat pump is
rejecting to a hydronic network,

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then another building
along the route

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may be extracting heat
from that network.

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And that, in fact, does reduce
primary energy consumption

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across our cities.

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So that's a resource that
you can tap into to decrease,

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again, capital costs, but
also mitigate your emissions

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from the system even in scope 2.

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And then we can consider
all these sources and sinks

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in aggregate.

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I'm not sure if you saw
this slide from yesterday,

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but very simply put,
we know that we're

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electrifying building
heating and cooling already.

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It's just a matter of doing
it right, responsibly,

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or we're doing it irresponsibly.

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And this is based on a
system-by-system basis.

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Connor mentioned
that Seattle might

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be a good place for some
cold climate air source heat

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pumps to operate
efficiently, but you also

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have district energy
operators that

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have to switch over
to electrification

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strategies of their own.

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Oftentimes, you'll see them
putting in electric boilers

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with a coefficient of
performance of 1 or less right.

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So that has impacts on our
electrical infrastructure,

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the grid-scale
impacts or consequence

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that we all have to deal with.

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If we can implement
geothermal energy networks

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and achieve more passive heating
and cooling opportunities,

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load sharing across
our cities, then

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our coefficient
of performance can

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increase from the COP of
1 for the electric boiler,

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up to about 6 to
14 for most systems

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that have been measured so far.

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And of course, passive
cooling opportunities

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exist where you
have surface water

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bodies because the
temperatures that they require

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are sufficient to leverage
the water source itself.

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So you might think of between
42 degrees Fahrenheit and 50

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degrees Fahrenheit, you can
use the surface water directly

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as a cooling source, and your
coefficient of performance

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can then exceed 20, perhaps
reaching as high as 60.

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So that's energy in versus the
thermal energy that you get out.

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And really quickly, these
are network topologies

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that you have to consider.

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A ringed network is
the ones that we've

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been talking about more
commonly for this workshop.

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But there are other
variants that you

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see as you get to larger
and larger scale systems.

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Meshed networks can be
an evolution of that,

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but they have more hydraulic
disadvantages, in some cases.

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You can have stagnant loops.

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And radial grid
systems are the most

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commonly seen in conventional
district heating and cooling.

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So in this case,
you can also have

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what is a near-ambient
distribution

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system in a radial configuration
with distributed heat pumps.

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But you're going to also
have to have a central plant.

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So you can either have
distributed equipment,

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you can have central
equipment, or you can

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have a hybridization of these.

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And you can also,
in this example,

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connect existing
high-temperature district

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heating and cooling systems with
their own near-ambient energy

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exchange loop.

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So there are ways to decarbonize
and leverage ground source

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systems without always having
to go to ambient temperatures.

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And these are, again, the many
process heat recovery sources

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that you can encounter, such
as data centers, the wastewater

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energy transfer, and
existing CHP systems

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that you already have
existing across the cities.

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So the heat sources and sinks
themselves are numerous.

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And these have
design consequences

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that Brian is going
to get into next

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and describe with a case
study and then give you

00:12:17.010 --> 00:12:20.190 align:middle line:84%
some decision-making
points to think about next.

00:12:20.190 --> 00:12:23.060 align:middle line:90%


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Final thought here.

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If we skimp on design, we
sacrifice everything else.

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Our operating and maintenance
is going to be abysmal.

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And we're going to be stuck with
these systems for the next 50

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years.

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So that's why having
this conversation now,

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as we're transitioning
to electrification

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and building heating and
cooling, is important.

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We're going to live with this.

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All right.

00:12:47.480 --> 00:12:48.260 align:middle line:90%
Thank you.

00:12:48.260 --> 00:12:51.610 align:middle line:90%
[APPLAUSE]

00:12:51.610 --> 00:13:23.000 align:middle line:90%