Energy geostructures featured in EPFL's annual report 2019
© 2020 EPFL
In the 2019 EPFL annual report, an entire article is devoted to a study carried out by researchers at LMS, aiming to convert a metro tunnel into a geothermal energy source.
Researchers from the Soil mechanics laboratory (LMS) were able to precisely estimate the coefficient of thermal convection in a study which was first published in a scientific paper in the journal Applied Thermal Engineering. In a world first, it could be possible to meet 80% of the heating needs of apartments surrounding the future M3 metro line in Lausanne, once it is equipped with geothermal heat exchangers.
In the 2019 EPFL annual report, an entire article under the research theme is thus devoted to this study which brings together renewable energies, civil engineering and climate change.