My research and teaching interests are in the general area of quantitative hydrogeology. Over the past several years my research has been focusing on developing technologies that will lead to greater use of geothermal heat pump (GHP) systems. Geothermal heat pumps provide an alternative to fossil fuels for heating and cooling buildings, including residential, multi-family, commercial, and industrial.
Much like the development of groundwater as a resource to meet important societal needs for drinking water and irrigation, the thermal energy in the shallow subsurface can be developed as a source of renewable energy to meet the societal need to heat and cool buildings, without relying in fossil fuels. My recent work has focused on developing advanced data analysis methods to conduct real-time performance assessment of residential systems and developing a framework for a performance database that can be shared among a variety of stakeholders, such as state energy offices, utilities, and business developers.
I am a member of the Renewable Thermal Alliance Steering Committee, housed at the Center for Business and Environment at Yale; the International Energy Agency Heat Pump Technologies Annex 52 assessing the long-term performance of large GHP systems; and the UNH Energy Task Force.
