A Norwegian innovation in construction - prefabricated energy piles - will be presented for the first time in Romania at a workshop in Oradea on December 10, as part of the international GeoInnovatePile project, which aims to transfer technology to Romania, Horia Ban, president of the Romanian Geoexchange Society (SRG), told AGERPRES.

This knowledge transfer takes place through the SRG's Centre of Excellence for Surface Geothermal Energy for Eastern Europe, based in Oradea, and is funded by Innovation Norway.

"We want to introduce this innovation and implement it on the Romanian market. The innovation involves constructing piles with pre-installed pipes to capture geothermal energy from the ground using geothermal heat pumps. These prefabricated energy piles save time, resources, and speed up the work," said Horia Ban, president of SRG and director of Termoline.

According to him, the event is a great opportunity to explore the revolutionary Driven Energy Pile (DEP) technology, which allows the integration of geothermal systems directly into building foundations, completely eliminating the need for drilling.

"Instead of working for six months on a foundation using energy piles, the work can be completed in two to three months using prefabricated energy piles that don't require drilling. They arrive pre-assembled and are simply driven into the ground. With these energy piles, buildings can benefit from 70-100% green, geothermal energy, especially in buildings that use micropiles for foundation at depths of 3-6 metres. If you're already required to create a supporting structure based on piles, it's a waste not to also make it energy-efficient to extract energy from the ground. This means reducing CO2 footprint and cutting fossil fuel use by 70-100%," explained Horia Ban.

The "GeoInnovatePile" project aims to accelerate the adoption of innovative geothermal systems in Romania to create local renewable energy sources for heating and cooling new and existing buildings. The project is carried out by the Romanian Geoexchange Society (SRG), GreenTAGS by Expert Proiect Cluj Napoca, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), and the Centre of Excellence for Eastern Europe in Oradea.

Lecturers will include three or four specialists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, alongside Horia Ban, president of SRG, and geotechnical engineering specialist Iulia Prodan, SRG's European Programmes Director and lecturer at the Technical University of Cluj-Napoca. Recently, Iulia Prodan and a team of 10 SRG colleagues, along with five from GreenTAGS, visited the energy piles site in Trondheim, Norway, where monitored piles led to the patent for the invention.

NTNU partners will present the patent for the prefabricated energy piles, which revolutionise access to geothermal energy, as well as innovations regarding micropiles, which bring flexibility and adaptability in implementing geothermal systems for various types of buildings.

The programme for December 10 will include the presentation workshop from 10:00 to 13:00 in the conference room of the University Library in Oradea. After the lunch break, from 14:00 to 16:00, networking will take place at Termoline's headquarters in Oradea, which is also the headquarters of SRG and the Centre of Excellence in Geothermal Energy.

Interested parties, including construction specialists, geotechnical engineers, academics, and students, can participate either in person or online by completing the registration form at . More details about the GeoInnovatePILE project can be found on the website .

The international workshop is part of the first phase of the project, initiated by SRG, which will run from 2024 to 2025, with a budget of EUR 250,000 funded by Norwegian grants. The next phase will focus on implementing the prefabricated energy piles on the market. AGERPRES (RO - author: Eugenia Pasca, editor: Irina Poenaru; EN - editor: Adina Panaitescu)