The project team will construct a borehole located in the northwest corner of the John Bardeen Quad south of Grainger Library. The borehole will contain a fiber-optic cable that will be connected to a distributed temperature system to detect changes in the Earth's thermal profile. As part of drilling a 450-foot borehole, a continuous core will be collected of the glacial sediment and bedrock. Thermal property, sedimentological, and geotechnical analyses will be performed on core samples.

Geophysical logs will be taken after drilling to provide additional insight on the geology and geotechnical properties. Also, a thermal response test (DTRT) will be conducted that will return information critical for the project team to model heat flow in the borehole using COMSOL multiphysics software. The monitoring station with fiber-optic cable is an early warning system to the movement of a thermal plume outside of the borefield. A similar methodology is being used to monitor the largest geothermal exchange system at Epic Systems Corporation located in Verona, Wisconsin. Although, the monitoring wells were installed after the geothermal exchange system was running and heating and cooling load imbalances were experienced.

Executive Director of Facilities & Services (F&S) Mohamed Attalla and Director of the Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment (iSEE) Evan DeLucia approved the use of Carbon Credit Sales Funding for this project.