Parkway South High School To Power Some Of Its Energy From Underground Heat

[Sherman A1]

Parkway South High School in Manchester this year will use geothermal energy, an uncommonly used form of renewable energy, to power its heating and cooling systems.

Parkway School District plans will soon install the geothermal units, which use heat from the earth. The $2.4 million system, which will replace the school’s aging chillers, was largely funded by a recent bond issue.

Replacing the chillers with cooling towers would have been less expensive than the geothermal units. But the geothermal units would save the school district $1.9 million over 30 years, said Erik Leuders, director of purchasing and sustainability at the Parkway School District.

“[Cooling towers] wouldn’t yield nearly as much the energy savings and on top of that, a conventional system needs to be replaced much more frequently,” Leuders said.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/parkway-south-high-school-power-some-its-energy-underground-heat

[TexasProgresive]

1. Reading the article I think "power" is not quite the right word.

The article is a bit sketchy as to exactly what they are doing. I suspect the wells are being used as heat sources and sinks for heat pumps. This is not particularly new technology. There are a few home owners in my area that use two wells for this purpose, one water is drawn up to the unit and the other is an injection well. The water has the capacity to supply heat and to absorb heat much more efficiently than air. Air heat pumps are basically air conditioners that work in reverse in winter. They don't do well when the air temp drops to freezing and are supplemented by resistive heat strips. Since ground water has a consistent temperature this is not a problem.

If the temperature in the ground water is high enough then it could supply power.

[Rebl2]

2. Many of the

schools in the district I live in have had this for at least 10 years. It’s a suburb of Kansas City, MO.