Although we’ve been meeting regularly online for the last year, everyone agreed that nothing beats a face-to-face meeting!  Last week we came together at the Newcastle Helix site for a technical meeting without once having to exclaim, ‘you’re on mute!’

Meeting on the Helix site allowed us to visit to the well head, where Dr Mark Ireland was able to explain the proposed site activities. We could envision how the site will look once its fully developed with affordable housing and community spaces.

The rest of the meeting was set aside for collaborative discussion – it was great to understand how models, both building energy demand and geological, will be integrated and the implications for managing geothermal systems in the future.  Much of the discussion related to the implications for the future of geothermal regulations in England, following Anna McClean’s publication ‘Who owns heat? The scope for geothermal heat to contribute to Net Zero’.

We’re planning our next face to face meeting for 3-months’ time, but in the meantime will continue to meet online, to limit our carbon footprint and continue to have impromptu discussions online... 

We’re looking forward to telling our stakeholders about our thermal response tests once work gets underway on site in Spring 2022…Keep an eye out for more details…

To register your interest in Net Zero GeoRDIE, please email rachel.brown@ncl.ac.uk