Drilling wells for WKO East

At the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, a Heat and Cold Storage (WKO) system will be installed in the second half of 2024. Work on this will start with the drilling of four water wells. On Monday 22 April, drilling of these wells will start to a depth of about 120 metres.

Four drillings

The first two wells will be drilled at Jenalaan (next to P7 wells 1 and 2 in the plan). Subsequently, drilling of the third and fourth wells will start near the cycle path opposite Tolakker (wells 3 and 4 in the plan). After drilling, the process of developing (flushing) the wells will begin. The total lead time of the work is about six weeks per well.

For the drilling of each well, a small construction site will be set up for the drilling machine and equipment needed. Given the location of the work, no inconvenience or restriction of accessibility is expected. This work is ahead of the other works associated with the construction of the WKO. These are scheduled from the end of August to December 2024.

Why are the sources needed?

The wells are part of a new WKO system to be constructed. This system will replace part of the current heat production by natural gas for a sustainable method. From the end of August, the four wells will be piped to the H. Jakob Building, Jeannette Donker-Voet Building, W. C. Schimmel Building and the yet-to-be-constructed new O&O Tolakker Building. In the future, this system can be further expanded with several source pairs, allowing us to have even more buildings use this sustainable technology.

How does WKO work?

In Heat and Cold Storage (WKO), groundwater in the ground is used to store cold and heat. The wells are placed so that they do not affect each other in the underground. One of these sources is called the hot-source and the other is called the cold-source.

In winter, we pump the warm water. This groundwater flows through a heat exchanger (TSA), which transfers the heat to the building plant for building heating. The cooled groundwater then flows to the cold source. In summer, water is pumped from the cold-source. This groundwater also flows through the heat exchanger, but now to cool the building. This warms up the groundwater and flows to the hot-source and warms up the groundwater around the source for use in the next winter season.

About how a WKO works, you will find here a handy animation and more explanations.