New Geothermal Energy Project in Halifax to Use Cold Energy Storage

[jpak]

http://www.renewableaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=50624

Ottawa, Ontario Mayor Peter J. Kelly announced the start of construction on the Alderney 5 Advanced Geothermal Energy Project in Dartmouth, ON. The Alderney 5 project is a CAN$3.0-million energy-efficiency retrofit of five buildings on the Dartmouth waterfront that are owned by the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM).

"By investing in ground breaking projects like this one, we are making sure that clean, renewable power will form an increasingly important part of our energy mix for the future, in Canada and worldwide."--Gary Lunn, Canadian Minister of Natural Resources

The project includes the first large-scale application of geothermal cold energy storage. The geothermal borehole energy storage system features a new design of borehole heat exchanger that will be used in a field consisting of 100 holes, 600 feet deep. Cold energy harvested from the adjacent seawater during winter months chills the rock mass underground. This stored energy can then be used to meet peak air conditioning needs, eliminating the need for a supplementary cooling system.

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[phantom power]

1. "cold energy?"

Somebody needs to take a thermodynamics course. It's making my brain hurt.

[Massacure]

2. This poorly written article makes my brain hurt too.

Basically they take cold water from lakes during the winter and pipe it through the ground to lower the ground temperature. Then during the summer they use the cold ground to cool buildings instead of using a traditional air conditioner. I'm surprised that the ground stays cold that long...

[mainegreen]

3. Some small scare farmers here are doing the reverse.

Pumping summer heat into the ground to warm their greenhouses in the winter.