Environment

Paris goes green with new underground energy project

by Amy Judd | February 14, 2009 at 03:53 pm

172 views | 6 Recommendations | 6 comments

The city of Paris has launched a new project to provide green heating for a whole district of the city as they plan to extract piping hot water from about two kilometres below the surface of the earth.

This is called 'geothermal drilling' and just north of the city they have begun this process already around the Saint-Denis canal.

"In Paris we're trying to adopt a strategy in which France is largely behind other European countries, because we've under-invested in renewable energies," said Denis Baupin, a Paris deputy mayor.

The deeper you dig for water, the hotter the water will be.

"The lower you go, the hotter the water," explained Michel Galas of CPCU, the urban heating company carrying out the work, as he stood next to a shaft that when finished will delve 1.7 kilometres (one mile) into the earth.

At that depth the water will naturally be heated to 57 degrees Celsius and it will be sucked up to heat water above that. That water will then be piped to apartments to heat radiators and provide hot water for residents.

"It's energy that is 100 percent renewable," said Galas, adding that drilling will go on night and day for about 100 days to reach the required depth.

It is hoped that the plan will heat 12,000 apartments that will be built by 2011. It costs about 31 million euros to implement this plan but as this is a natural energy source, the biggest outlay of money will be at the beginning. It will save 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere, which is the equivalent of what an average car would pump out if driven for 470,000 kilometres straight (that is longer than the distance between the Earth and the moon).

The environment has been given a new priority by President Nicolas Sarkozy so it is expected that more projects like this will be implemented in the future.

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Pythiian1

at 16:07 on February 14th, 2009

It's great, although I wonder if they're going to treat the water for daily use.

Amy Judd

at 17:03 on February 14th, 2009

I don't think so - it's just going to be recycled for heating in this manner over and over.

Roy C

at 18:01 on February 14th, 2009

New York has a system where hot water created while making electricity is used to other heat buildings instead of being discharged into the atmosphere and wasted. This keeps down pollution from heating buildings. Not the same, but a good use nevertheless.

An American in Lima

at 18:39 on February 14th, 2009

The idea sounds promising although (to this nonscientist) a bit risky. The force and heat of that underground water must be tremendous. Hopefully the system built by the French scientists will be strong enough to withstand the pressures.

Roy C

at 23:54 on February 14th, 2009

Since the days of Napoleon, the French have been particularly good at public works projects. Bullet train?

Fripouille

at 09:18 on February 15th, 2009

Correct. France is a world leader in many aspects of transport and infrastructure. The quantity and quality of public transport is unequalled anywhere on the planet as far as I am able to discern, and the motorway network is comparatively top-class.

For example, and some of you will have problems believing this, on many bus stops in the city of Lyon, where I live, there is a screen telling you, minute by minute, when your bus will arrive. Buses are every ten minutes max in town. Once on the bus, you don't even have to look outside to see where you are. The electronic display names the next stop, and it's announced automatically over a speaker system.

The subway in Lyon includes a totally automated line (no driver) with trains every two-and-a-half-minutes!