The Pacífico station has become the first on Madrid’s Metro network able to take advantage of subsoil energy to heat and cool its facilities, thanks to a geothermal-based energy exchange system.

Geothermal energy consists of taking advantage of the subsoil as an inexhaustible source of energy to generate both heating and cooling. It works thanks to the capacity of the ground, as of a certain depth, to accumulate heat from the Sun and maintain a nearly constant temperature throughout the year.

The system used in the Madrid station works through a ground heat exchanger and geothermal heat pumps. These release heat to the ground for cooling and absorb heat from the ground for heating, thus cooling or heating platforms, machine rooms and the shops in the station. The project has recently received the prize for the best geothermal installation in the industrial and service sector from the Community of Madrid, during the seventh annual “Rafael Mariño Professorship of New Energy Technologies” at the Comillas Pontifical University.

Thanks to the development of projects and works such as this, the Madrid Metro is internationally recognized as an exporter of knowledge and technology to other metros and transport systems around the world; as such, it is internationally renowned not only for its operational service, but also for its maintenance and research work.