UC Berkely is planning a new clean electrified heating and cooling plant utilizing shallow geothermal to cut down greenhouse gas emissions. As part of this initiative, a new borehole with the depth of 400 ft was drilled and installed during the week of May 20, 2024, at the Hearst North Field on Berkeley campus, which will host the new plant. From Aug. 16 to Aug. 19, 2024, Soga Research Group (SRG) conducted a distributed thermal response test (DTRT) to measure the thermal conductivity distribution along the borehole. With the advantage of distributed fiber optic sensing (DFOS) technique, DTRT can effectively reveal heat transfer efficiency at different soil layers. It helps validate the feasibility of geothermal as part of the energy system and advance understanding of shallow geothermal as a sustainable energy solution.
