Through insightful conversations with industry experts and MIT administration, Geo@MIT is excited to present our proposal for a new 6th generation zero-carbon HVAC system for MIT’s campus.
This plan achieves zero-carbon status by 2035
15
years earlier than MIT’s current plan of 2050.
Geo@MIT
We are Geo@MIT, a group of MIT and Harvard students who have backgrounds from mechanical engineering and computer science to business administration. We also have a certified geothermal driller on our team. We are excited to present our proposal for a 6th generation geothermal district heating and cooling (GDHC) HVAC System!
So let’s dive right in!
*For a more detailed explanation please proceed to Detailed Proposal Section.
What is Geothermal?
When you hear the word “geothermal”, what do you think?
You may imagine drilling deep into the earth’s core to harness its energy.
Many academic institutions and other building clusters are implementing what is called “4th-Generation District Energy infrastructure”.
One main obstacle to widespread adoption is the perception that geothermal cannot be implemented in urban environments.
However, our proposal overcomes this problem by deploying a geothermal district heating and cooling system in an urban environment: MIT’s campus in Cambridge, MA.
The MIT campus presents a major challenge for a zero-carbon district HVAC system.
- Space is limited
- Buildings are of all ages
- Campus built on a type of land usually considered unsuitable for geothermal.
The challenges of implementing a multi-faceted GDHC system in an urban environment, such as MIT’s campus are:
*For a more detailed explanation please proceed to Detailed Proposal Section.
Summary:
Technical analysis
The technical analysis tackles challenges with location constrains, energy source & distribution system, and energy consumption.
Stakeholder Analysis:
