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Oil & Gas Drilling Technology Could Make District Heating Feasible

By District Energy posted 11-16-2020 19:03

  

CleanTechnica

Summary

About 12% of all US greenhouse emissions come from heating and cooling buildings, according to Vox. Much of the energy used to heat large buildings — factories, office buildings, universities, schools, and so forth — could come from geothermal sources. The Earth’s core is made up of molten iron, geologists say, though no one has actually been down there to verify that claim. The deeper one goes beneath the surface of the Earth, the hotter things get — as much as 370º Celsius in some cases. The US Department of Energy has put together a dandy graphic showing precisely how that heat could be tapped to serve a variety of purposes.

The average temperature of the Earth from about 10 feet down below the surface to 1000 feet below is around 54º F. That makes ground source heat pumps (GSHP) for residential and small commercial buildings appealing because the pipes don’t need to be buried deeply in order to cool during the summer or heat during the winter. But if we go down deeper, average temperatures begin to rise to the point where the heat of the Earth is already warm enough to heat buildings without heat pumps. In general, underground water that is heated to between 200º and 300º Fahrenheit is ideal for so-called Deep Direct Use (DDU) geothermal systems, which can make district heating for entire cities and towns possible.

Such systems are used in many European cities, especially Reykjavik. Paris is exploring district heating and Munich is as well. The larger the system, the lower the unit costs are. Munich intends to offer geothermal heat as another municipal service, with pipes installed alongside sewer and water lines. New buildings will be able to connect to the DDU system as easily as to other city services.

In the US, Boise, Idaho has used geothermal heating since 1890. Princeton University is shifting from a natural gas steam system to geothermal. The Oregon Institute of Technology, Carleton College in Minnesota, and Ball State University in Indiana already heat with geothermal district heat.

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