Session 4: Geo-Exchange in Action

Michael Ahern has over 30 years of experience in leading development, engineering, construction, operation, and management of industrial and energy systems. This includes operational oversight of businesses in the industrial and energy fields, with a specific focus on district systems over the last fifteen years. At Ever-Green, he leads the development and advancement of mission-based campus and community energy and utility systems that achieve clients’ strategic goals. Ahern holds a BS in Business Finance from the University of Notre Dame, with an International Business Minor.

Dr. Saqib Javed is a senior researcher at National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Colorado, USA. He also serves as an Editor at the ASHRAE’s official journal, Science and Technology for the Built Environment (STBE). He regularly works as an Expert for the European Research and Innovation Programmes. His main research interests are directed toward low-carbon technologies and thermal and building energy systems including building integrated energy systems; heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration; renewable and geothermal energy; district energy and heat pumps; and energy supply and storage systems. He has worked extensively with the design, performance evaluation, techno-economic assessment, and lifecycle analysis of these technologies. He has obtained over 15 million Dollars in research funding and in-kind contributions. He is a certified teacher and has a Diploma of Higher Education in teaching and supervision at the university level. He has supervised 6 PhD and more than 25 post-graduate students. He has made over 90 scholarly publications, including over 50 peer-reviewed journal papers. He has acted as the organizing and scientific committee member for several international conferences and symposiums. He has delivered keynote and invited speeches at research gatherings and conferences across the world. He is a reviewer for over 25 scientific journals.

Matt Mitchell, PhD. Research Engineer. National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colorado. Matt leads several teams of researchers focused on development of design and simulation tools for geothermal heat pumps and thermal energy networks.

Ian Davies, PE, is a Mechanical Engineer specializing in high-efficiency, carbon-free energy systems ranging in size and complexity from individual buildings to community-scale campuses. His planning, design, and implementation experience at the district energy level includes geothermal systems for Amherst College, Dartmouth College, Oberlin College, Princeton University, Smith College, Tufts University, Wellesley College, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute.

For over 25 years, Jeff Urlaub, PE, has been a leader in the geothermal energy field, advancing the use of geo-exchange technologies as long-term, cost-effective, carbon-free heating and cooling solutions. Over the past decade alone, Jeff has led the energy analysis, planning, design, and implementation of more than 450 geo-exchange projects, providing over 90,000 tons of system capacity and producing a portfolio of industry benchmarks in scale, performance, and technological innovation. He is responsible for some of the most sophisticated and complex geothermal systems in North America, including the largest U.S. district geo-exchange network, for the campus of Epic Systems Corporation, in Verona, Wisconsin.