The waste heat from cooling generates a lot of heat in summer - when nobody needs it. It could be stored underground until winter and then used for heating.
Ruhr-Universität Bochum produces a huge amount of waste heat that currently simply escapes unused: server rooms and laboratories have to be air-conditioned all year round, the combined heat and power plant alone has two cooling towers, and that’s not all. "An incredible amount of energy is wasted," says Tobias Licha, Head of the Hydrogeochemistry working group in the Faculty of Geosciences at Ruhr University Bochum. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could save all this energy until winter and then use it for heating? This vision is what drives him. ...
