He Holds a MS in environmental engineering, obtained in 2012 at Politecnico di Torino.
He has mainly worked on the international cooperation project called GRETA, supported by the EU Interreg Program Alpine Space. The aim of the project was the diffusion in the Alpine region of Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHP). Politecnico di Torino was the leader for the mapping activities. This project ended in December 2018 and Simone worked with GIS systems in order to map the geothermal potential. With the collaboration of other partners, on line maps were created in some pilot areas and, on a larger scale, a map of factors able to interfere with the installation of GSHPs in the entire Alpine region. This in order to define the most suitable areas for near surface geothermal energy utilisation, allowing public administrations to develop Sustainable Energy Action Plans. He is now working in a cooperation project with different universities, assessing the geothermal potential of remote off-grid villages in the northern Québec. He is also modelling heat transport in porous media for open-loop geothermal plants in urban conditions. He particularly appreciates to supervise the thesis works of master students about geothermal energy modelling.
Before being a researcher, he was involved in the development of a project about wooden biomass for district heating in remote alpine villages. He also spent some months in Australia, discovering a different approach to lands and nature in the huge Australian countryside.
After the degree in 2012, he worked as freelance in the mapping of water protection areas around springs and wells captured by of the aqueduct of the Verbania province (North Italy), where he grew up. In the same beautiful area, he studied the superficial aquifer in his master thesis titled Hydrogeological study of the unconfined aquifer of the river Toce valley, between Domodossola and Fondotoce.
He spent his final year of the student career, studying in France in the Institut National des Sciences Appliquées de Toulouse, within the Erasmus program. There he experienced the laboratories of the university, testing water treatment methods like the sand filter shown in the photo.
Simone in the lab of the INSA Toulouse
On sunny Saturdays and Sundays, you can see him riding his red motorbike, on colder weekends he is probably snow-boarding in the Alps.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/simone-della-valentina-693b1258/
