Indian Army inaugurates geothermal-based Net Zero Energy Building
The Indian Army has inaugurated a Geothermal-Based Net Zero Building at Jhansi, with a shallow geothermal borehole field for space air conditioning.
A Geothermal-Based Net Zero Building has been inaugurated at the city of Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, India. An array of ten boreholes, drilled to a depth of 120 meters each, provides space air conditioning to the building, thus far being able to maintain indoor temperatures of 22 °C while the outdoor temperature is at 43 °C.
The building, designed and built for the Indian Army at CWE Jhansi, was built from the ground up to demonstrate the feasibility and benefit of net-zero technologies. The electricity supply of the building is primarily from photovoltaic panels, with a backup grid connection when solar power is not available. The ground source heat pump system is the only source of air conditioning.
The project was commissioned by the Military Engineering Service of the Indian Army, seeking to build a facility with an Energy Performance Index (EPI) of less than 50. For location, buildings in the city of Jhansi have a standard recommended EPI of 144. The building was designed and delivered by S.A.P. Automations India Pvt Ltd, the same company that designed the large-scale geothermal heating and cooling system at the Leh Airport. The project took 138 days to complete.
Reports indicate that the Indian Army now intends to replicate this technology for facilities in higher altitudes.
“This is a big success in India’s journey of Net Zero buildings , be it cooling or heating. Our grid is essentially coal-dominated and geothermal can not only give solutions for low-energy buildings but also decarbonized space conditioning,” said Arijit Ghosh, Managing Director at S.A.P. Automations India.
“The Indian Army is a large consumer of space conditioning. Hence, I would think it’s a potential game-changer not just for the Army, but for India.”
Source: Email correspondence, National Institute of Technology Calicut
