Thermal and Energy Geotechnics employs the multidisciplinary principles of engineering physics, environmental engineering, geology, and the mechanics of porous media (soil and rock) for the development, design, and operations of sustainable energy systems. Sustainable energy systems represent the future of our society and continue to receive increasing research investment and implementation in practice, notably including wind and solar energy foundations and collector systems, geothermal heat pumps (deep exchange wells and shallow horizontal systems in unsaturated soil), and the sustainable development of energy resources (e.g., high-temperature geothermal, value-added biogas, unconventional resource recovery). Research projects focus on the science of sustainable and efficient energy systems not just as related to geotechnics, but also as measured with validated life-cycle analytics and quantified embodied energy.
