Geothermal energy breaks ground at TU Dublin's Grangegorman campus
Today, 07 November 2024, the GEMINI project was launched at a celebratory event at TU Dublin's Grangegorman campus with almost 80 people in attendance. GEMINI (Geothermal Energy Momentum on the Island of Ireland) is a new €20/£17.3m multi-partner, all-island geothermal energy demonstration project.
Over the next four years, the GEMINI project will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with heat production, a goal central to EU, UK and Irish strategies to meet 2050 emissions targets. The project is led by Codema, Dublin's Energy Agency, and is supported by the PEACEPLUS programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) and endorsed by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Ireland and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland.
Speaking at the event TU Dublin’s Vice President for Sustainability Jennifer Boyer said:
Innovation is essential at this moment in time, because it provides new possibilities and rapid solutions for sustainable energy such as the geothermal technology. Through the support of Europe, our National Departments, and GEMINI partners, the prospects of sustainable thermal energy act as a significant contributor to decarbonise the Grangegorman campus, and the work of this partnership is critical to helping TU Dublin achieve its Climate Action goals.
In March 2021, in collaboration with Geological Surveys Ireland (GSI), CODEMA and the Grangegorman Development Agency (GDA), TU Dublin embarked on an exploration project to drill the first urban geothermal test hole in Ireland to obtain high-quality information about deep subsurface data. It was the first trial borehole of 1 km carried out by the GSI to assess geothermal potential in Ireland. The initial trial borehole showed promising results, with a temperature of 38.5°C at 1 km depth.
Geothermal energy is a secure, local, near-zero emissions energy source which is suited to both urban and rural areas, including individual users or networks with large heat demands. The geothermal technologies deployed in this project will use heat energy from the Earth to power large-scale heating and cooling systems in public sector buildings such as swimming pools, housing projects, utility offices and a university campus.
The GEMINI project will support the development of the geothermal sector and accelerate the uptake of geothermal energy through four real-world pilot installations, 3 shallow (<500m) in Sligo and Belfast, and one deep (approx. 2km) in Grangegorman, Dublin. Additional data will also be collected for potential future sites, 'ensuring that the GEMINI work will have wider impacts for the island by increasing and improving our understanding of the sub-surface and our island's potential geothermal resources. This information will also help to inform new policies, guidelines and supports for the sector through geological heat potential maps, cross-border policy recommendations, toolkits for decision makers (homeowners, planners, developers and local government), community engagement guidelines, and business and skills development activities.
The project will be delivered by GEMINI's 15 partners from the local and national government, the research sector and community engagement groups both North and South of the border.
Project Partners
Codema; Research Management & Logistics Ltd; Geological Survey Ireland (Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications); United Kingdom Research and Innovation - Geological Survey of Northern Ireland; Northern Ireland Housing Executive; Northern Ireland Water; Sligo County Council; Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies; Irish Central Border Area Network; Queen’s University Belfast; Think-tank for Action on Social Change; Technological University Dublin; University College Dublin; Ulster University; Atlantic Technological University.
Associated partners
Dublin City Council; Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council; Belfast City Council; Supporting Communities NI; Cavan County Council; Grangegorman Development Agency; South West College; Mayo Sligo Leitrim Education and Training Board.