Geothermal and Trigeneration Systems as Innovative and Environmentally-Friendly Solutions for Telecommunication Plant Cooling

The paper deals with a model-based analysis of innovative cooling systems, to be deployed in telecommunication (TLC) plants in consideration of their size, geographical location and typology (e.g. central Offices or data-centers). Environmentally friendly systems, such as geothermal heat pumps and trigeneration plants, were considered. The trade-off between the investment and operating costs was first analyzed, followed by a comparative evaluation of economic savings achievable via each candidate solution with respect to reference benchmarks, here represented by traditional air-water heat pump and conventional interaction with electrical grid. In this way, a preliminary macroscopic assessment of the best solutions was accomplished, according to the different scenarios (i.e. small or big TLC plant) under investigation. A more detailed analysis, concerning the comparison between traditional and geothermal systems, was specifically carried out to evaluate savings as a function of the external temperature and, consequently, of geographical location.