Geothermal power, suitable for Shetland?

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

Following on from the subject cropping up in this thread, and with a mods suggestion to make a seperate topic about it;

 

http://www.shetlink.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=173&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=1375

 

Anyone with more knowledge than I able to comment on how realistic and practical geothermal and GEOHIL based approach is in particular for providing large scale electricity generation, as an alternative say to a large wind farm..

 

I had previously asked in other forums but the responses was limited, perhaps there might be more people with experience of hole drilling/etc. around these parts.

 

Nearest I've come yet to any answers:

 

http://www.foe.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4304.new;topicseen#new

 

Thoughts and comments anyone ?

[paulb]

you seem to have had your answer in your friends of the earth post. its to expensive. so whats the cost of wind turbines/tidal/wave power per mega watt.

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

I don't believe the answer I got there! not until I've had a few other opinions with some figures thrown around to compare with, or someone who can check their figures to see if they are true or not!

 

Being that I found a company that apparently already has been using the technology for 20+ years, dug hundreds of wells/boreholes, it makes me think that there is something in it, and its not just very well known.

 

Its not uncommon to come across the odd green here or there who isn't really out there to help, but hinder economic development at any cost, so the answer is always no, no matter how wonderful the solution..

 

I reckon its quite possible to have our cake and eat it, by all means do things green, but don't foget you need to feed people and put a roof over their heads.

[trooter]

As far as I am aware there are a few homes using Ground source heat pumps for heating but can't see that you could generate much power geothermally unless somewhere like Iceland.

[paulb]

this is from an icelandic site and as everything up here you can probably double it.

cost of drilling a 3km bore hole £1,295,815.14

this is just the drilling this is a third of the total cost of the borehole so it would cost just a bit under £4000000 per hole. again the cost depends on rock being drilled. for every extra 500m add 15%

http://http://conferences-engine.brgm.fr/contributionDisplay.py?contribId=22&sessionId=17&confId=5

[Nigel Bridgman-Elliot]

I also came across some figures here for those interested:

 

http://geothermal.inel.gov/publications/drillingrptfinal_ext-05-00660_9-1-05.pdf

 

And another link about a specific manufactor of drilling equipment, perhaps someone in the oil industry can comment on this and how suitable say the Terra Invader 350 rig might be:

 

http://www.vertical-herrenknecht.de/index.php?lang=en

 

 

When I have the funds, I'd be more than happy to finance finding out the hard way the actual costs and see what can be produced heat and electric wise, as that will also allow a benchmark to be established to help better figure out if this approach could be used countrywide.

[paulb]

so $2.5 million for about the same depth. so x3 = 7.500000 thats about the same. would a wind turbine tied into an air exchange system get you free heating and a lot cheaper to.

[MaxFusion]

I may be wrong but I'm sure someone in Cunningsburgh has geo thermal going on....

I had heard dat da drillin rig had been down there boring holes for a new house to use geothermal

 

like I say could be wrong, I'll have to do some askin about to remember where I heard it.

[EM]

http://www.foe.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=4304.new;topicseen#new

You are somewhat less animated here

 

I may be wrong but I'm sure someone in Cunningsburgh has geo thermal going on....

Are you sure it is not just shallow heat pump technology? There are quite a few people with heat pumps running in Shetland. Gary Williamson (ex Physics teacher) must have been one of the first. I think his system just uses pipes in the garden.

 

When investigating heat pumps I noticed there is an installer in Shetland, Burra possibly.

[MaxFusion]

yup, I know about da GSHP's but I'm sure da coonty drill rig went to cunningsburgh to drill holes for someone...like I say I'll hiv t check

[Njugle]

 

When investigating heat pumps I noticed there is an installer in Shetland, Burra possibly.

 

The guy that owns the Burra garage installs them, in co-operation with plumbers, electricians and whoever digs the hole.

 

He has done a substantial one in Cunningsburgh, and one in Scalloway that i know of offhand.

[Malachy]

The boreholes are essentially the same thing as the normal ground heat pumps. If you don't happen to have enough space in your garden for all the trenches that are required for the pump then you get a borehole dug instead. It does the same job.

[EM]

I had long thought that it might be feasible to run the pipes in my garden (AKA Lerwick harbour seabed), though there would probably have been some LPA or even Crown Estate admin to deal with. When I investigated the technology further I discovered I had been stupid because the pump just needs the sea itself and there is no need for a pipe network. Still considering the idea, but it is on pause for now.

[MaxFusion]

Spoke to them that know and it was fladabister the holes were drilled...altho there have been a few done around shetland.

 

This is not the same as the geothermal in Iceland and like Malachy said it's essentially just a GSHP using a borehole instead of a matrix under your garden.

 

The upside of this is, for the fladabister house anyway, that the owner is geting back way more than expected..... apparently it works on a principle that you put energy in and get more out. ie put in 1Kw get 4Kw out (which is the norm for this type of setup)

 

drilling only costs a few thousand too, not hundreds of k

[paulb]

i think nigel is talking about an island wide scheme. i think all the heat exchangers work out at 1:4 effect. to avoid using oil you still need to find 1kw for each 4 you use. how about turbines on the inlet into th loch at whiteness/wiesdale. the current seems to run quite strong there. then you could stick turnbines on the burns. small scale i know but its cheap and easy.