[Raptor235]

Hey guys does anyone know if either Canada or the US have any geothermal plants in operations? I know some other countries like Australia and Greenland have some plants but I never heard of one here...

[housefinch]

I think you'll be interested in this.
Now you've prompted me to think about it again I'll try and find you a link.

I watched a couple news stories about subdivisions that share a geothermal type heating system. Sharing the plumbing(?). Honestly the story ran so quick I didn't fully understand it. Apparently the fluid (water?) is piped through the earth and is naturally heated to 57F, this pre heated fluid is shared in the subdivision. Now this is where they lost me. Some kind of heating system re-heats the fluid to whatever you set your house temp to be. I know 57F doesn't sound like much at first but this is a 'burb in central BC (Kamloops. The 2nd story I saw I believe was in the Vancouver area). I believe they said the capitol costs are 20 to 30 thousand dollars and with all the piping I wonder about repairs.

Just the same it sounds like something worth taking a second look at.

o7O

[housefinch]

This is the most interesting link I found.

New development taps geothermal energy

Builders say energy-efficient project is wave of future


By Sharon Adams - Business Edge
Published: 07/21/2005 - Vol. 2, No. 15


If developer Ted Snider's daughter had not been an architecture student, the 24-hectare (60-acre) Orchards Walk development in Kamloops would have looked like any other modern housing development.
But when he showed her the initial plans, "she said: 'None of this uses modern urbanism,'" says Snider, chairman of Ovation Homes.
So he went back to Square 1 and the result was a plan that uses high-tech features to create a hometown atmosphere in one of the most energy-efficient developments in the country.
The $170-million Orchards Walk development features a GeoExchange heating and cooling system, area-wide domestic hot water and irrigation systems, community recreation and shopping, and neighbourhoods that invite walking and visiting. Potential buyers get their first glimpse of the community this week when the show homes and sales centre open.
Garages will be in the rear, houses will have porches and stoops, and the village centre will accommodate the small shops at the heart of every community.
The community plan gives residents easy access to the surrounding environment - the South Thompson River and the bluffs - and will have a pool and ice rink for neighbourhood recreation.
"The idea is if you want to do something, you can do it in the community," says David Zigelman, marketing director and project co-ordinator. "If you want a quart of milk, go ahead and walk to get it - you don't have to go far.
"It's a walking community, as the name implies," adds Snider.
All the buildings and homes - up to 675 of them - will be heated and cooled using a super-efficient, state-of-the-art GeoExchange system.
There will be no hot water heaters or furnaces. Buildings will use only a fraction of the energy needed by similar structures that rely on gas, oil, propane or electricity for heating, cooling and domestic hot water.
Like other geothermal heat pumps, Orchards Walk's system will borrow and return excess heat from deep in the earth, where the temperature is a constant 6° to 10°C, to provide warm or cool air for the community buildings.
A shaft sunk more than 100 metres straight down houses fluid-filled pipes that capture or return heat to and from the surface.
What makes this system different is that all the sources of heating and cooling in the entire community have been considered, says Jeff Maxwell, president of TRAK Canada, which has 15 years of experience in designing and building residential and commercial earth-energy heating-and-cooling systems.
Heat needed one place, say for the swimming pool or to produce hot water, is captured from another source in the community, such as from making ice for the skating rink or from water flushed down the toilet.
The GeoExchange system added about $3 million to development costs, and will increase the price of residential units between $4,000 and $6,000 each, estimates Snider. The size of the development has substantially lowered the per-unit cost of providing the GeoExchange system, which can cost more than $10,000 in smaller developments.
But the developer predicts it will more than pay for itself in the long run.
"The end use saves the homebuyer money (in substantially lower monthly utility bills and by not needing to buy and maintain furnaces and hot-water heaters)," says Zigelman. "And we make money (through charges to owners for providing the GeoExchange service)."
Only two to three per cent of new construction across the county now includes geothermal energy systems, but builders predict such systems will be common very shortly.
Initially, builders were reluctant to use such technology because it adds to the cost of each housing unit.
"Buyers want to know what they're getting for that extra $10,000 to $15,000 on the price of their house," says Tim Kasten, president of the Kamloops branch of the Canadian Home Builders' Association (CHBA). But as Canada works to meet its commitment to cut greenhouse emissions under the Kyoto Protocol, homebuyers easily understand the benefits of more stable energy costs, lower energy use and doing their bit for the environment.
As well, developers say they'll continue to get heating and cooling for a fraction of the cost of those using electric- or fuel-powered utilities and their utility bills will not fluctuate as wildly due to supply and demand pricing.
"Consumers will pay for that," says Patsy Bourassa, CHBA-Kamloops executive officer.
GeoExchange systems may also become more popular with developers because they can provide a continuing source of income long past the sale of the last house or condo.
In a way, developers become small utility companies, charging homeowners a fee for continuing to provide heating and cooling.
Ovation Homes has provided a blueprint for a livable "green" community, which can be used elsewhere to breathe life back into the urban centres of small cities.
And getting people onto the streets and out of their cars in cities such as Kamloops, Nanaimo and Nelson would allow the downtown cores to thrive, rather than shrink.
(Sharon Adams can be reached at sharon@businessedge.ca)

We've all heard real estate agents before. Just the same its interesting. Hope this is what you're talking about.

o7O

[Stepper]

Housefinch--this is so cool!

Well, except for that last part about "GeoExchange systems may also become more popular with developers because they can provide a continuing source of income long past the sale of the last house or condo." It seems to me that the homeowners would have already paid for it, so there should be mainly maintenance costs after that. Am I missing something?