Pittsburgh Geothermal Field Trip: Frick Park Environmental Center

"Frick Park Environmental Center" Geothermal Tour
(Marijke Hecht and Arlene Anderson are Pictured at the Center)
Photo: Kirsi Jansa

"GEOTHERMAL" IS ONE WORD THAT SHOULD DENOTE A SINGULAR VISION in the collective minds of consumers; “Energy from the Earth”.

“Refreshing” is another word that describes how the Geothermal Direct Use Technology & Marketplace Forum was conducted in Pittsburgh on August 17^th.

There is a good movement afoot at the DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) and the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), and it involves “connecting” all of the ways that we harvest energy from the earth in a practical a sensible way.  There are certain situations where reservoirs of hot water are economically accessible for direct use in buildings, and there are even more opportunities (speaking geographically) to harvest low temperature geothermal resources, for “ground source heat pump” (GSHP) technologies.

The workshop involved an impressive cross section of expertise, featuring speakers from as far away as Iceland that shared their applied expertise on geothermal.

The day ended with a brisk forum in which attendees contributed real advice that will help government to provide real benefits to the geothermal industry. There will be a full report on these efforts on the DOE’s website soon.

Participants that were fortunate enough to stay over were treated to an impressive tour of Pittsburgh’s “Frick Park Environmental Center” on Tuesday, August 18^th. Marijke Hecht, the Director of Education for the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy conducted the tour.  Her passion for children, STEM education, renewable energy and sustainable technologies was evident. The tour ended at the geothermal loop-field termination inside the building.  Marijke said that since geothermal heating and cooling is all but “invisible”, she is going to leave a portion of this piping visible to visitors with a display explaining the geothermal heating and cooling process.

Arlene Anderson, Technology Manager at the GTO will attend the American Ground Water Trust (AGWT) New York Geothermal Workshop on September 9th, 2015. Arlene will also represent the GTO at the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association’s (IGSHPA) Technical Conference and Expo in Kansas City, October 5-8, 2015.

Ever since DOE employees attended a workshop/field trip to the Kentlands Community Center in Gaithersburg, MD where geothermal energy heats and cools the community center from a pair of standing column wells (SCW). They (the GTO) appear to be in “hot pursuit” of ways to facilitate more widespread implementation of deep direct use and geothermal heating and cooling. The GTO Systems Analysis and Low-Temperature Team that Arlene belongs to is benchmarking geothermal technologies that use low-temperature geothermal in the Eastern U.S. and other regions. Arlene said that the team is interested in understanding the potential for deep direct use and GSHP in the U.S.

The International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) and the Geothermal Exchange Organization (GEO) are your resources for helping in these efforts.

Don’t forget to get your name and support on the National Geothermal Day website. These are the groups to which you and others can and should go to get information, training and list your company as a geothermal heating and cooling entity.