Newcastle borehole drilling starts in search of heat

BBC ^ | February 23, 2011 | Unknown

[decimon]

Engineers have started drilling a hole deep below Newcastle in the search for a renewable energy source.

The Newcastle and Durham Universities team plans to sink a hole 2,000m (6,562ft) below the planned Science Central site, in the city centre.

Scientists hope the £900,000 project will result in water at a temperature of about 80C (176F) being pumped out.

The plan is the water could be used to heat the site and surrounding city centre buildings.

The project, which started on Wednesday, is expected to last six months with the team hoping to pump out the first hot water in June.

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The Newcastle project is similar to one already operating in Southampton, where underground hot water is used along with oil and natural gas for a combined heat and power network.

[decimon]

Carrying hole to Newcastle.

[OCCASparky]

And what do you do when you want to COOL them?

[Sherman Logan]

Wonder how much energy is used pumping water up a mile versus heating surface water about 100 degrees.

[Thermalseeker]

Geothermal using a 2 stage compressor is a whole lot more efficient (in excess of 500% in some cases) and cheaper (doesn't require a 6000'+ hole), too.

Steppin' over Pounds to pick up Pence.....

[BillGunn]

I’ve a question. Would large scale removal of heat from in the earth have any detrimental affects on inner workings of earth???

[Islander7]

Don't drink the water!

[decimon]

Steppin' over Pounds to pick up Pence.....

Wonder how many old British sayings this might spur.

[mmercier]

I worked on a geothermal well or two.

Bump a hole a mile deep and get water @55F.

Geothermal does not heat the building, it offers a buffer.

I do not see their temperature expectations manifesting without a nearby caldera.

[thackney]

Yes, and taking thimbles of water from the ocean may have a detrimental affect on the water level.

[from occupied ga]

Scientists hope the £900,000 project will result in water at a temperature of about 80C (176F) being pumped out.

Wonder how much energy is used pumping water up a mile versus heating surface water about 100 degrees

Me too. I'm thinking that this is going to be some really expensive hot water.

[decimon]

Would large scale removal of heat from in the earth have any detrimental affects on inner workings of earth???

I'll guess not as natural processes release tremendous amounts of heat.

[loungitude]

Wonder how much energy is used pumping water up a mile versus heating surface water about 100 degrees.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Think manometer. Only need to overcome friction loss.

[1raider1]

Let’s see, the Earth’s mantle and core is a ball of material so hot that it is molten rock and iron thousands of MILES thick and you worry that mankind could cool it off?

[decimon]

Bump a hole a mile deep and get water @55F.

They're talking about 176F. Superheated.

[Pontiac]

Geothermal does not heat the building, it offers a buffer.

Not true.

You can use a heat pump to boost the heat out put of geothermal systems and for the most part this is how most of the systems in the north are set up.

But a 176 degrees F you wouldn’t need the heat pump. That is more than sufficient to heat a building if there is enough water to circulate.

What I do notice in the article there was no mention of the pay back period for this system.

With that kind of money just for drilling the hole I would imagine it will be in the range of 15 years or more depending on the size of the building and future energy cost.

This is more or less a demonstration project and a political stunt aimed at the Green Party.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

You could work it out yourself, with one of the handy on-line energy unit converters — such as this one:

http://www.unitconversion.org/

By my calculations, in this case, pumping the hot water up 6,200 feet uses about 1/15 th of the energy that heating surface water 100 degrees F would require. IOW, this could be a good deal.

I know of several communities in northern Canada, that use deep geothermal wells to heat their municipal water supply. (They need to do that in the winter, to keep it from freezing up, in the pipelines.)

[mmercier]

The last one I saw go down in Salem Massachusetts, nearly a mile came up superheated to 55F. Maybe I am wrong and it was 155F.. The designated hundred gallon gas boiler system to handle the water from the geothermal unit makes me think otherwise.

Call that guy Neil Chayett(SP) on his “looking at the law” radio show, it was his house.

What I was told was the water is warm enough to prevent your pipes from freezing in the winter, and cool enough to ac the house in summer. All free, after the 20k hole is paid off.

[thackney]

Geothermal energy available is not consistent across different areas.

[PeaceBeWithYou]

Al Gore(Alta Rock Energy Inc.) did this in Switzerland and got sued for the earthquakes it caused.

Then they tried it in N. California and encountered a geologic anomaly(oil&gas).

California quickly denied the permit for the deep fracture procedure after they learned of the Swiss lawsuit.

[Sherman Logan]

Thanks for running the numbers. Too lazy to do it myself.

I am aware of the unusually high specific heat of water. IOW, it takes a whole bunch of energy to raise or lower the temperature of water.

BTW, there have been a number of movies based on the notion of deep drilling. Few turned out well.