ENGIE sets up aquifer geothermal energy storage for its new HQ – EQ Mag Pro

Construction work on French multinational utility company ENGIE Group’s new headquarters in La Garenne-Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine), named “the Campus,” began at the end of 2020. The aim of these new buildings is to be carbon neutral.

Storengy was in charge of designing the air conditioning and heating systems for the buildings using the ATES (aquifer thermal energy storage) geothermal renewable energy solution.

ATES geothermal energy acts like a conventional geothermal energy solution, with the only difference being that in this solution, water withdrawal and injection are reversed according to the season. In winter, the hot water is pumped on one side and once used to heat the building, it is cooled and reinjected into a cold water tank. A total of nine wells were dug by Storengy’s partner, SANFOR, for this purpose.

These 90-meter deep wells will be accessible via the basements of the buildings and will thus be able to supply renewable heat and cold with a power of 1.9MW in heating and 1.6MW in cooling. This 100% renewable and innovative geothermal solution will be used to heat and cool the premises. It will be supplemented by heating provided by a biogas-fired boiler and by cooling provided by photovoltaic panels. This is the first time in France that Storengy will implement its “smart geothermal” solution on a project of this scale.

Source: Storengy