Speed School researcher awarded $1 million DOE grant to tackle data center cooling demand

By Michael Phillips

Dr. Omid Ghasemi Fare of the J.B. Speed School of Engineering has been awarded $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for a four-year project titled “Geothermal Thermal Energy Storage for Cooling-Dominated Data Centers, Large Buildings, and Campuses.” The research responds to a fast-growing challenge. As artificial intelligence, cloud computing and other digital technologies drive the expansion of data centers, the demand for cooling is putting increasing pressure on the nation’s electrical grid, especially during hot summer months.

“Our project is investigating whether we can use the ground not only as a source or sink for heat, but also as a large-scale thermal energy storage system,” Ghasemi Fare said. “We can then use that stored thermal capacity when cooling demand is high.”

Cooling systems for large facilities rely heavily on electrically driven chillers and cooling towers, which add significantly to peak electricity demand. Ghasemi Fare’s team will develop a hybrid geothermal system that combines groundwater-based cooling, underground thermal energy storage and borehole thermal energy storage, along with advanced materials that absorb and release heat to increase cooling capacity.

The concept works something like a battery. “It does not store electricity directly; it stores heating or cooling potential,” Ghasemi Fare said. The system would store thermal energy underground during lower-demand periods and use it during peak hours, shifting when electricity is consumed and easing stress on the grid.

UofL will lead the project in partnership with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Oklahoma State University. Oak Ridge, working with Dr. Xiaobing Liu, will support experiments and thermal performance evaluation, while Dr. Jeff Spitler and his team at Oklahoma State will contribute expertise in geothermal system modeling and design optimization.

Each phase of the project builds on the last. Early work will focus on fundamental research, system design, laboratory testing and modeling. Researchers will then move from individual components to integrated systems, using experimental data to validate and refine their models, including field testing using existing geothermal infrastructure at UofL. In the final stages, the team will evaluate how the technologies could perform at the scale of an actual data center, large building or campus.

“We do not want to finish with only a theoretical concept,” Ghasemi Fare said. “We want to understand how these systems should actually be designed.” The goal is to produce validated design tools and field-scale evidence that move the technology closer to real-world implementation.

The applications extend well beyond data centers. Hospitals, universities, industrial facilities, commercial buildings and district energy systems could all benefit, and campuses in particular could share underground thermal storage across multiple buildings. In the longer term, Ghasemi Fare hopes to help establish “the ground beneath our buildings and infrastructure as an important energy resource.”

The award is also a first for Speed School’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE). “Dr. Ghasemi Fare’s $1 million DOE award is the first DOE EPSCoR award in the history of the CEE department,” said Dr. Zhihui Sun, department chair. “It is a strong reflection of the growth and momentum of the CEE faculty in research productivity. Federal awards of this scale demonstrate that our faculty can compete successfully at the national level.”

Sun added that the grant will create opportunities for recruiting postdoctoral research fellows and PhD students, as well as for undergraduates interested in research on energy and infrastructure challenges.