On January 22, 2025, the students of the Geothermal Energy course had the opportunity to go on an exciting excursion to the construction site at Donaustadtstraße 37. The visit was organized by the construction company PORR together with the Institute of Geotechnics at TU Wien and offered valuable insights into the use of geothermal energy for residential construction projects in urban areas.

At the beginning of the excursion, the students were given an introduction to the construction project, during which site manager David Frühwirth and two other employees from PORR's geothermal energy department, Tobias Muellner and Sebastian Steindl, explained the key aspects of the planned use of geothermal energy. The focus was on the production of the geothermal probes, which will enable sustainable heating and cooling of the future residential complexes with over 200 apartments on two construction sites.

Numerous technical details of the geothermal probes were presented and discussed. Typical duplex probes with depths of 150 meters are used. The students were not only able to find out about implementation details, but also inspect various models and components of the probes and the drilling tool. Aspects such as the materials used, pipe layout, construction site equipment and the drilling methods employed were also explained in detail.

The practical demonstration of geothermal probe drilling impressively illustrated how innovative specialist civil engineering contributes to sustainable energy generation.

Many thanks to David Frühwirth, Tobias Muellner and Sebastian Steindl as well as Anita Angerer and the construction company PORR for organizing this informative excursion and providing comprehensive insights into the exciting construction project.