A project in Bavaria is harnessing high temperatures from deep beneath the earth to provide a community with warmth in the winter and to power the local grid in the summer
This post uses a gift link with a view count limit which may run out.
Nice to hear that they started operations now.
I found this bit interesting:
The Geretsried project will ultimately provide, in annual terms, 8.2 megawatts of electricity to the grid or about 64 megawatts of heating to the nearby town.
Emphasis mine… so I would guess they focus on electricity production during the summer months?
Such a close loop system has a bit of a low-grade waste heat problem during summer months though, even when using it to produce electricity. I guess we will see more heated public outdoor swimming pools again if this technology takes off.
That “or” is fairly surprising to me; its fairly easy to use waste heat from electric generation for district heat. Id expect some modest reduction, but not a total trade-off
Geothermal can be used for cooling by using earth as a heat sink. Toronto cools and heats it’s entire downtown core with loops deep in Lake Ontario because a lake of that size is warmer in winter and cooler in summer than ambient. It was not a “green” project, it was simply cheaper.
I just hope they don’t make the same mistake as with the beautiful German town that is literally being ripped apart by the effects of drilling in the wrong geological area.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebungsrisse_in_Staufen_im_Breisgau
“There are no geological restrictions or geographical restrictions,” [CEO] Toews said.
Well, that doesn’t fill me with optimism.
deleted by creator
What’s new is the closed-loop horizontal drilling in places where geothermal was not possible before
