A Geothermal Company Wants to Use New Technology to Heat an Old German Town
A Geothermal Company Wants to Use New Technology to Heat an Old German Town
www.wsj.com
wsj.com
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
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Nice to hear that they started operations now.
I found this bit interesting:
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.
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.
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