GeoExchange
As regular readers know I am a full scale Kyoto sceptic who, never the less, for reasons of geopolitics and thriftiness believes that alternative energy is critical to the West’s survival. So I was delighted to read on Tyler Hamilton’s must read blog, Clean Break, that there is a Geo-Exchange conference coming up on November 27th. i was less happy that it is in Montreal as that eliminates any possibility of getting there; but it is great to see this under explored technology being discussed.
I tend to call the tech “geo-thermal but it really does not matter. The point is that household heating and cooling could be done - either completely or in part - with nothing more complicated than some tubing, a trench or pond and a heat exchanger. Sure there are capital costs; but compared to building another nuclear reactor, high dam or coal fired plant these costs look pretty reasonable. And they would become more and more reasonable as the technology was adopted by more households.
the fact that they satisfy the religious belief of the enviros with respect to CO2 is a lucky co-incidence.
Written by jay on November 25th, 2006 with
1 comment.
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#1. December 14th, 2006, at 9:54 AM.
Geothermal heat are proven reliable and effective and have been preferred because of their comfort and economy long before anyone started the global warming hysteria. I discovered them years ago and am even more enthusiastic today. Most of the new alternative energy sources , quite frankly, have overpromised and underdelivered. If you want to be discouraged, just take a lok at the pathetic performance of wind power,one of the most popular alternative energies. Its proponents consistently lie about it output, quoting boilerplate megawatt capacities that overstate its
actual output, even in good wind sites by more than threefold. Also note that 16,000 new megawatts had to be added to the U.S. power generation just in the last year, yet even though more wind turbines have been constructed than ever before, the output of all those turbines errected during the last year does not equal 5 percent of just the increase in capacity. It’s also true that when power demand peaks during hot summer late afternoons, output from wind turbines is
characteristically not available. By my estimate, not only does money
used to subsidize geothermal heat pump systems produce 8 times the effect of spending the money on wind turbines, but it also results in a higher standard of living for the homeowner,which is the opposite effect of wind. In my opinion, geoexchange should be required by the building code. It’s that important and beneficial.