Dr. Koenraad Beckers is a geothermal energy research engineer, and co-founder and managing partner at Heateon, with almost 10 years of experience in modelling, simulating and analysing geothermal energy systems. As a member of the Cornell Earth-Source Heat team, Koenraad conducts techno-economic and reservoir simulations to investigate geothermal district heating at the Cornell main campus in Ithaca, NY, USA. Other geothermal projects include performing reservoir simulations for the DOE EGS-Collab project and conducting a feasibility study for developing a geothermal plant at the Port of Long Beach in California. Prior to founding Heateon, Koenraad was a staff member at the National Renewable energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colorado. Koenraad holds a BS and MS in mechanical engineering from the University of Leuven, Belgium and a PhD in chemical engineering from Cornell University.

ABSTRACT:

This talk presents an overview of the current and planned district energy infrastructure, energy consumption, and climate action plan of Cornell University at its main campus in Ithaca, New York, USA. An efficient lake-source cooling system commissioned in 2000 currently provides 98% of campus cooling consumption. A natural gas combined heat and power plant commissioned in 2009 provides 90% of campus heating needs. Cornell is in the process of designing and developing a geothermal (or earth-source heat) system to provide affordable, clean and reliable baseload heating and lower its carbon footprint.