October 3, 2024
A staggering thirty percent of global carbon emissions stem from the building sector alone, with nearly six million commercial buildings burning fossil fuels just in the United States. Using gas boilers for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is a major source of carbon emissions, and UMN startup Darcy Solutions is leading the charge in a different approach to HVAC systems that is more efficient, environmentally friendly, and cost effective.
The Solution: Darcy
As more and more companies are steering toward a carbon-free model, Darcy Solutions has made bounds forward in the industry with their geothermal energy model.
The process, originally developed by a team of scientists from the University of Minnesota, uses water wells to access existing groundwater for thermal exchange to heat buildings. The team of engineers and geologists at Darcy have designed a custom heat exchanger to bring thermal energy to buildings from water hundreds of feet below the ground. One might wonder how this impacts the water supply. In reality, no water is removed from the ground in this process; what is actually being extracted is thermal energy from below the surface and brought to the building, all being powered by electricity.
Coupling this geothermal system with a renewable form of electricity such as solar energy, a building’s HVAC system can essentially become completely decarbonized all while reducing the cost long term. Another added benefit of Darcy’s geothermal systems is the efficient space design, making them the ideal solution for urban environments.
Darcy’s team manages every aspect of a project, from the design, to installing the system. They even continue ongoing monitoring and optimization after the fact.
History: Idea to Innovation
During a hydrogeology study workshop in Northern Minnesota in 2010, a team of scientists from the University of Minnesota discovered that the presence of groundwater can alter the thermal capacity of a given installation. This discovery led the team to test the potential of using groundwater to provide thermal energy to buildings, effectively decarbonizing them using a groundwater-based heat exchanger optimized specifically for the geology of the project site.
Once the design was up and running, founders of Darcy Solutions received support from MNSBIR, Inc., a private, independent organization that helps Minnesota startups and small businesses secure federal Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs to develop and commercialize research solutions for economic impact. Darcy Solutions was competitively awarded nearly $5 million from the Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation, the United States Department of Agriculture They also received funding and support from the University of Minnesota Technology Commercialization’s Discovery Launchpad, MIN-Corps, and the Launch Minnesota Initiative to get the idea from a design to an actual product on the market, leading to Darcy Solutions.
”We wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for that effort and initiative,” expressed Spencer Ingalson, chief development officer at Darcy Solutions.
“MNSBIR, Inc. has worked with Darcy Solutions since its founding in 2018 and has financially supported Darcy Solutions’ federal proposals to the Department of Energy, the United States Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation and recently to the Environmental Protection Agency. “Our comprehensive knowledge and support is critical to secure federal funding for technology commercialization.” explained MNSBIR’s Founder and President, Pat Dillon.