Great Article Find: Geothermal Energy is Underutilized in NC

Originally posted September 10, 2010 by Steve Edelman – Fayetteville Observer Blog. SOURCE

One of the first environmental errors made by ancient man was the use of fire to heat dwellings. It could have been intuitive that humans, before the invention of “civilization,” realized that caves maintained a fairly steady environmental temperature year round. Neither frost of winter nor heat of summer caused much variation in the ambient temperature inside a cave. Perhaps they took their cue from cave dwelling bears. No one knows.

Ancient Romans, oriental cultures, and others used steam vents heated by molten materials close to the earth’s surface to heat baths and buildings. Some modern countries continue to use the hot side of geothermal vents in the earth’s crust to heat whole towns and homes. One such country is Iceland. The United States is exploring the use of geothermal energy production (think geysers) in the west.

It took until 1904, when Prince Conti of Italy developed the first modern geothermal generator. The use of geothermal energy did not take place on a large scale in North Carolina until 2001 in Greensboro. The founders of the American Hebrew Academy installed the largest closed-loop geothermal heat pump system in the world.

Using the knowledge that the earth can be used as an efficient heat exchanger, and the fact that the temperature ten feet beneath the surface is a constant 50 to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the school used approximately one mile of plastic pipes to connect 756 wells under its soccer and baseball fields. Every bit of the water is retained in the closed system which is circulated by three 200 horsepower motors and pumps. Winter heat is created in campus buildings when the water in the pipes absorbs heat from the ground, takes it through a heat exchanger, and warms air. Summer cooling reverses the process.

The capacity of the American Hebrew Academy system is 700,000 square feet. It is currently being used to heat and cool 29 buildings (440,000 square feet). A geothermal heat exchange system such as the one at the American Hebrew Academy had an initial higher cost to install. The cost has been recouped by means of energy savings, and eventually becomes profitable in between ten and fifteen years.

Can public schools benefit from the use of geothermal ground pump systems? There are 800 to 1000 public schools that already make use of geothermal ground pump systems. Cumberland County does not have a single school with a geothermal ground pump system. The same is true for surrounding counties. Texas public schools started to install geothermal ground pumps back in 1989. They lead the nation with more than a hundred schools being heated and cooled with geothermal systems. The Austin Independent School District in Texas has 75 schools “pumped up.” Missouri ranks second with more than 60 schools, followed by Kentucky with about 40 schools “on the pump.” According to Doug Bantam, Chief Engineer, Lincoln Electrical Systems, in Nebraska (a state in the top ten list of schools using geothermal pumps), “The schools with geothermal systems have energy costs about half those of the schools with conventional heating and cooling equipment.”

Geothermal heat pumps are practical teaching tools for students. The American Hebrew Academy uses their system as a teaching tool, as do many of the public schools around the nation. Learning and teaching is enhanced by functionality and practicality. How much brighter would students be if they learned how Earth Science, Physics, and the practical math of economic savings interact with creating comfortable places to learn?

Maximizing the use of geothermal systems in schools, public buildings and residences will eventually reduce greenhouse emissions in the United States by over a million metric tons per year. Improving the ecosystem is what this kind of retro-technology (remember the cave dweller) is all about. Part of the American Hebrew Academy’s instructional philosophy fits with thousands of years of Jewish thinking oriented toward “tikkun olam’ (“Repair the world”).