Energy geotechnology: A new era for geotechnical engineering practice

Energy geotechnology provides low carbon, cost-effective and local energy solu-tions to structures and infrastructures, which opens a new era for the geotechnical engineering practice, by extending the conventional role of structural design to the one of addressing acute energy challenges of our century. The paper initially goes over the idea behind energy geotechnol-ogy by highlighting its scope and applications to various geostructures for structural support and energy supply of built environments. Aspects of primary importance for maximizing the energy, geotechnical and structural performance of energy geostructures and solutions to address this challenge are presented. Moreover, analytical solutions and design tools, as well as performance- based design of energy geostructures are introduced. The goal of this paper is to uncover the great potential of energy geotechnology on the path of less dependency on fossil fuels and to emphasize the new critical role of geotechnical engineers to take full advantage of this technology.