Drilling Deep: The Geothermal Energy Revival

http://www.livescience.com/environment/071030-geothermal-energy.html

From a room underneath the sidewalk in New York City, stark, white pipes plunge more than 1200 feet into the depths of the earth. There they whisk water to the surface where it regulates the temperature inside a futuristic brick-and-glass building occupied by the Center for Architecture in lower Manhattan.

“Our heating energy is not from Con Edison. It’s coming from beneath the earth’s surface,” says Rick Bell, executive director of the 15,000-square-foot center, which is the home of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects.

Bell opens the door to a room underneath LaGuardia place in Manhattan’s Greenwich village to reveal a system of pipes, made from recycled plastic, that emerge from underground and meander about 50 feet through the building. “It supplies us with constant air of about 55 degrees, even on the coldest winter nights and the most sweltering summer afternoons,” he explains. The temperature is well suited for a space regularly visited by large groups of people.

The popularity of geothermal heating and cooling has increased rapidly—even President George W. Bush has a geothermal system at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. In addition, experts are looking towards the technology as a way to provide clean electricity. Although geothermal energy makes up just half of one percent of the total energy consumption in the United States, demand jumped 13 percent from 2001 to 2005, according to the federal Department of Energy. In January, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released the most extensive report on the geothermal power generation in thirty years.

<more>

in "This Old House" this month. He wants to go that way when we eventually build on some acreage.

cooling, powered by wind/solar PV combo.

So far it is really nice but we have not had it long enough to realize the cost benefit or to even say how it is doing since there are still contractors in and out all day. Will tell you after this winter. We are sunk in the pond rather that in the earth so I am guessing, but I do not know for certain, that we will use less power in the summer than the winter. We will see.