Town to be heated and cooled from the ground

Press, 17 January 1979, Page 14

Town to be heated and cooled from the ground

(Many areas of the world are underlaid with thermal waters too cool for practical generation of electrical power but with temperatures more than adequate for other profitable commercial applications. A scientist in Oregon is completing studies of the possibilities and problems of transporting such water in large-diameter pipe over long distances to heat large cities. A Californian company is about to realise a plan to heat and cool a small city with on-site thermal water. These and other developments suggest a bright future for this inexpensive, low-pollution source of energy. Our correspondent in California, JOHN HUTCHISON describes the townheating project in this, the last of three articles).

Ground will be broken early in 1979 for a complete new town in Nevada which will be heated and cooled with geothermal water. Newlands, expected to grow in 10 or 15 years to a population of 20.000, is to be served by the Geo Products Corporation, the Californian company, using hot water long known to underlie the area, but little used. GeoProducts expects to produce adequate water from wells no deeper than 450 metres, with a temnerature somewhere between im and 175 degrees Celsius. The water

will circulate in a closed system through buildings and homes equipped with heat exchangers and blowers, said Mr Alexander Black, chairman of the company’s directors.

The new city will draw its first inhabitants and perhaps its principal population from the hotel and gambling trade which has boomed sensationally in Reno and Sparks, “twin” cities some 20 miles away. Once a campsite for pioneers headed west and long known for legalised gambling and quickdivorce law, Reno became famous for its relaxed attitude toward tourists but began to fall behind Las Vegas as a tourist centre after World War 11. Now it is surging forward again, with five new casinos and numerous resort hotels, one of them having more than 1000 rooms, rising on the outskirts. Ski and lake resorts nearby, a growing university, and a merchantile distribution centre have put intensive pressure on housing. Mr Max Johnson, whose family and company own and are developing the land for the Newlands project, said their city will also have light industry and commercial development of its own. In addition to an initial project of 100 family units, a shopping centre and industrial park will be con-

structed this year, with warehousing and cold stores among the first projects. All will be served geothermally. Hot water from existing wells and springs is relatively potable and can be supplied to livestock, Mr Black reported. In some thermal areas of the American West, hot water contains impurities which are difficult to manage on the surface and must be reinjected into the earth. Reinjection is also necessary in some areas of sedimentary geology, to prevent subsidence, he noted, but the Nevada site, like New Zealand’s thermal districts, is of volcanic origin; the underground rock structure tends to support itself. The use of geothermal heat as a public utility will, supplying an entire new city, be unique in the United States. Such applications now exist o- are planned for parts of .towns, and are used for numerous institutions or commercial and manufacturing enterprises in several locations in the American West. With the increasing cost of fossil fuels, geothermal energy appears to have crossed the threshold *o many economic applications, and to be attracting investors who have both the technological and financial resources to exploit it.