| Title | Assessing the potential of combined power and cold generation for data centers with deep geothermal |
|---|---|
| Authors | Konrad Ostermann, Ludwig Irrgang, Hartmut Spliethoff, Christopher Schifflechner |
| Year | 2026 |
| Conference | World Geothermal Congress |
| Keywords | |
| Abstract | Due to rising electricity demand and cooling requirements of data centers, combined solutions that supply both power and cooling from enhanced geothermal systems are increasingly attractive. Therefore, two geothermal supply concepts are compared. An Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) paired with an electrically driven compression chiller (CC) and an ORC cascaded with a thermally driven absorption chiller (AC). Steady-state system modelling across a range of injection temperatures shows that the cascade ORC+AC configuration can reduce the required geothermal brine mass flow by approximately 12.5% and increase the available net electrical power by about 3.9% compared with the ORC+CC baseline. These gains stem from substituting thermally driven cooling for electrically driven cooling, thereby improving the energetic utilization of geothermal heat. |