The geothermal system ensures cooling in summer and warms in winter. The soil below the Science Tower is activated via warming probes and used as a seasonal heat buffer.
12 geothermal probes with a depth of 200 m each and a total length of 2.4 km provide the Science Tower with heat and cold. In the summer, heat is added to the ground by the cooling process (soil is heated!). In winter, this heat is removed from the ground (the ground is cooled down) and is brought to a higher temperature level by the heat pumps and used for heating. The temperature changes (summer – winter) occurring in these processes in the soil are very low (some degrees Celsius), the energy is obtained less from the temperature change but from the large volume of activated soil. – In the summer-months, a direct cooling operation (without heat pumps) is possible through a bypass circuit as “free cooling”!
Secondary note: The ground under the tower is about 6 times the volume of the science tower, that is about 120,000m³ and is more than 3 times as deep as the science tower itself!