Posted on 02/03/2023 4:28:32 AM PST by FarCenter
Munich (Germany) (AFP) – The heating plant in Munich's southern Sendling neighbourhood has been run for more than a century on gas, often imported from far away.
But increasingly, it is the hot waters from deep underground the station that provide the energy.
Tacked on to the side of the original 19th-century red-brick plant is a boxy new geothermal unit surrounded by a tangle of pipes.
Work on the new installation started in 2016 and it opened in 2021, before Russia launched its assault on Ukraine and shut the pipelines to Europe.
But the timely opening of the modern unit -- one of the largest of its kind in Europe -- is a happy coincidence for the city, which like the rest of the country is facing the challenge of making up for lost Russian gas supplies.
'Perfect location'
Munich is pouring in one billion euros ($1.1 billion) through 2035 to develop the geothermal energy and make the city's heating carbon neutral.
"We're sitting on a gold mine," says Christian Peltl, director of geothermal energy at SWR, the operator of the plant in Sendling.
"Munich has the perfect geological location" in a region known for its thermal baths, Peltl says.
Everywhere in Europe, interest in geothermal projects has grown in recent years as officials search for ways to decarbonise their energy systems.
(Excerpt) Read more at france24.com ...
So, they won’t have thermal water and very few energy on top of it. Where is Great Tunberg when we need her?:)
Losers, all of them. Okay to come up with new old ideas that are only unready promises to appease the people before they die from your folly.
Geothermal is quite clever actually/ If one did not have acess to fossil fuels and only electricity, it would make sense to go there. kinda pricey though.
Western Europe can look at geothermal energy and LNG all they want. Bottom line, though, is once this war is over, they return to importing cheap Russian gas. The lesson learned is that they need to have a backup plan B energy source should their supplier get feisty again
geothermal is the answer.
available in almost all countries, it can produce gigawatts of power fairly easily.
don’t worry, we’d never utilized something so obvious and easily obtainable in the US.
Like the two of you, I like geothermal. But I wouldn't call it "the" answer. IMHO it's dependable energy and we should utilize it. We should also recognize its limits and still depend on fossil fuels too. (I'm the same way about hydro power, though I believe we've maxed out all the goody we can get from it.)
As far as implementing it in a decentralized manner (individuals doing it on their own) I'd probably consider it if I lived in the cold northern states. I'm convinced one way us freedom-loving Americans can reduce how much government controls us is by each of us making our homes and lives as energy independent as we can.
No need, just let the cold freeze the proles to death in the dark.
Then there will be plenty for the Aristocratic Ruling Elite, and light traffic for their Limousines to negotiate.
No argument from me...
If too much heat is extracted from the earth core, there will be contraction and earth quakes and volcanic activity as the surface moves as a result
Islands will also tip over.
Dogs and cats will live together.
If you are already drilling a well for domestic water it lowers the overall fixed cost because you already have the drilling rig on site. Then you just need to drill a second hole usually.
Ground temperature below 5’ stays the same almost all year round. So, when you bring 50 degree water up from the ground you are only changing that temperature 15 degrees or less with a heat ex changer to what you want the inside of your house.
I did the same kind of permutations before putting solar onto my property. Also before getting an EV. (Do you have land that's not shaded, if no then do you have roof facing south not shaded, is it a metal roof that won't have to be replaced during the 25-years the solar panels are warrantied for, does at least one adult stay home most of the day and therefore spread out appliance use during the day instead of demanding most power usage be done after getting home at 6 PM, do you live in an area where most power consumption in the year is from running the A/C to fight the summer heat which is also when you get the most sunshine, etc.)
My wife and I checked off all those boxes. And even then I went with a smaller solar system for a year to study the real world results and data before expanding it last fall to the full system I originally planned to get and getting an EV to do most of our driving in. The end result is now 80% of our power is free for our all-electric home, including charging the EV (for local driving). That's 80% spread out across the year (less than that in the winter, more than that in the summer).
I wonder if that’s a tacit admission The wind and solar power just not enough and there’s too many problems with it
Sooner or later they’re going to realize they need Russian gas
You may be right but not for the reason implied.
First, Putin didn’t close the tap, it is Canada that refused maintenance on the pumping equipment on two lines and then the ‘unknown’ power destroyed three lines.
Regarding Europe surviving winter it is in part due to storage filled before the above events took place and then due to LNG imported from elsewhere REGARDLESS THE PRICE. The price of gas other than Russian is not sustainable, it did cost more than $1 trillion in government subsidies. It simply can’t last long.
Germans may very well expect the Russian gas to return, but after the ‘regime change’ in Russia and with themselves in charge of the Russian gas industry.
If it doesn’t happen then their economy is toast.
It is not going to happen, and Russia is not going to resume supply, because the gas is currently repurposed for newly built LNG plants where it can be liquifyed and shipped around the world for much higher price and into chemical industry to convert it into plastics and fertilizers.
The excessive volumes are getting pumped to Asia.
Yeah I am sure this will handle up to 5% of their energy needs
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