The increasing volume of traffic in underground systems is continuing to produce issues around overheating in stations and walk ways throughout the year. At the same time, offices and housing at ground levelcontinue to experience rising energy costs for heating. GI Energy are working with key partners to utilise our experience in rail infrastructure developments and heat recovery to offer linked developments in urban settings.
The large interface between the tunnel structure and its surrounding ground enables GI Energy systems to harvest ground source energy by thermally activating the concrete structure. The extracted energy is supplied to above ground users via conventional heat pumps that lift the temperature to the required level. Using tunnel structures is more efficient and cost effective than energy sources such as oil or gas and can even provide an improvement to conventional ground source solutions like boreholes or energy piles