Husky Heat Harvesters Win $10K for Visionary Campus Energy Plan
Led by Emma Ortiz, E’26, mechanical engineering, a team of Northeastern University students won first place in a U.S. Department of Energy competition for their design of a theoretical geothermal energy system beneath the campus’s Centennial Common.
This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cynthia McCormick Hibbert. Main photo: Northeastern masters student Emma Ortiz led the Husky Heat Harvesters to victory in the Department of Energy’s Geothermal Collegiate Competition. Photo by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
They dug in and came up with an award-winning geothermal plan that is full of ‘holes’
Imagine boring 120 holes, each more than 900 feet deep, under the grassy expanse of Centennial Common on Northeastern University’s Boston campus to release geothermal energy for heating and cooling.
A group of students from Northeastern called the Husky Heat Harvesters drafted a plan to do just that, and won a U.S. Department of Energy collegiate competition for their effort.
Thirty-three teams from 25 U.S. colleges and universities competed in the Geothermal Collegiate Competition, sponsored by the DOE.
The Husky Heat Harvesters took first place and a $10,000 prize in the technical track by developing a project to assess a community’s energy needs and designing a theoretical geothermal heating and cooling system for that community.
“We decided what better choice than our Boston campus because there are already geothermal efforts going on here and also decarbonization efforts going on in the city of Boston,” said Emma Ortiz, a second-year master’s degree student in mechanical engineering and leader of the Husky Heat Harvesters team.
Team members worked with university staff and outside contractors to understand the geothermal features being planned for Northeastern’s Roux Institute in Portland, Maine, and the new multipurpose athletics and recreational complex that will replace Matthews Arena in Boston.
“Luckily, they were doing the test drilling for the Matthews Arena, so we got to see an actual geothermal well being drilled, and we got to ask questions about that,” Ortiz said.
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The Husky Heat Harvesters team led by Emma Ortiz designed a theoretical heating and cooling system of geothermal wells under Centennial Common. The design called for covering the well caps with grass. Photos by Matthew Modoono/Northeastern University
The team then came up with its own plans to heat and cool Ryder Hall, Shillman Hall and Behrakis Health Sciences Center with a pegboard of pipes under Centennial Common.
“The idea was to replace some of the energy we currently get from the steam plant,” which needs updating and is based on fossil fuels, said Chaz Garraway, a Husky Heat Harvester and second-year master’s degree student in Northeastern’s climate science and engineering program.
It’s about transitioning “to a new energy source that’s more renewable, more reliable and more sustainable,” Ortiz said.
Read full story at Northeastern Global News