3 Responses

1. an arm and a leg

2. A generator produces electricity, and you want to pull warm water out of the ground and try to make steam to turn a turbine, to turn a generator? Wow. The cost to construct this would be in the hundreds of thousands. Drawing up plans, doing geothermal studies, getting environmental & municipal permits would easily exceed $100,000. Then you have drilling, purchasing of generator & turbine (plus spare parts), construction, testing, inspection, and start-up.

   Just get a kerosene heater.

3. There’s actually a very simple way you can benefit from geothermal energy: A “geothermal heat pump”.

   You know that an air conditioner makes it cold inside by making it hot outside. Yes, it is pumping heat. What makes a “heat pump” special is it can air condition, and also go the other direction – heat your home by cooling the outside. It replaces (or helps) a furnace.

   The only trouble is, a normal A/C or heat pump is trying to work with hot outside air in the summer, and cold outside air in the winter. It has to make the outside coils REALLY hot or REALLY cold to work properly. This hurts efficiency a lot.

   It would work a lot better if the outside coil was in something kinda medium temperature. Below the frost line, the ground is medium temperature all year round! So hey – bury the coil! That’s the geothermal part.

   One more thing. In summer, when you’re trying to get rid of heat, you know your hot water heater (for showers)? Hey – dump some of the heat in there, and heat your hot water for free!

   Here’s more on the technology and the costs. (American $, which is very close to Canadian $)
   http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/home/heating_cooling/geothermal.html