Geothermal in Action:

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Cedar Rapids Community Schools – Cedar Rapids, Iowa

School district serving 1,800 students, encompassing 24 elementary schools, six middle schools and four high schools

Energy savings:
177,481 kWh annually

Conservation incentives:
$399,799


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Background:
While students were enjoying summer baseball games, afternoons at the swimming pool and family vacations, Alliant Energy and local contractors were busy planning and installing new geothermal heating and cooling systems at four Cedar Rapids Community Schools.

Solution:
The new geothermal systems are designed to heat and cool schools 30-50 percent more efficiently. Each of the schools installed closed-loop geothermal systems ranging from 32 to 588 ton.

The system at Franklin Middle School was retrofitted to replace an older heating unit. The systems at Hoover Elementary and Washington and Jefferson High Schools were added to control temperatures for recent building additions.

In addition to being cost-effective, ground-source heat is a naturally renewable energy source and friendly to the environment.

"Because geothermal systems are stand-alone and burn no fossil fuels, these buildings will reduce demand on the electrical grid, eliminate dependency on natural gas and prevent emissions of air pollutants," said Alliant Energy Account Manager Jan Otto.

Franklin
Middle School

Results:
In total, the four schools are expected to save 177,481 kilowatt hours of electricity annually.

"This energy savings is equivalent to powering 20 average-sized residential homes for a year," explained Jan Otto, account manager at Alliant Energy. "Results like this are significant and over time should allow schools to redirect dollars from utility expenses back into the classroom. Energy efficiency projects are a win for everyone."

Representatives from Alliant Energy recognized the Cedar Rapids Community School District Board of Directors for their commitment to energy efficiency and presented a rebate check for $399,799 in August 2004.

Learn more about incentives and financing

"The life-cycle cost of geothermal heating and cooling systems is an important economic consideration. Schools must plan for long-term efficiency to maximize their resources," explained Dave Dvorak, building and grounds manager for the Cedar Rapids Community School District. "The savings in energy and operating costs compared to ordinary systems make geothermal an attractive choice for schools."

Recommendation:
"We incorporated geothermal cooling and heating into our schools primarily because of economics," said Dr. Dave Markward, superintendent of the Cedar Rapids Community School District. "Rebate dollars and eventual savings will go a long way in supporting our student's achievements and educational mission."

"We were delighted to partner with the Cedar Rapids Community School District to make this energy-efficient and environmentally-friendly solution viable," said Otto. "The district is very forward-looking and should be applauded for being good stewards of its energy dollars, as well as being environmentally responsible."

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HANOVER, Germany, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- Germany is building a geothermal power plant in Lower Saxony, where conditions were previously considered less than ideal.

The 2 MW plant, called GeneSys, will rely on a 2.5-mile-deep well to be drilled near Hanover, in northwestern Germany. So far, Germany has only three large-scale geothermal power plants in operation. This is not without reason.

In Iceland, for example, an array of active underground volcanoes heat up the earth even in low depths. That means you don't have to drill deep in order to harvest the heat from the earth's interior. Some 90 percent of Iceland's heating needs is met by geothermal power plants. Not so in Germany. Here, you have to drill deep, which dramatically increases costs connected to geothermal energy.

But a group of scientists working for a German government agency has now launched GeneSys, a plant with a one-well pumping system that has significantly reduced drilling costs, the online version of German news magazine Der Spiegel reports.

Because of its groundbreaking pumping infrastructure, the entire plant will cost only half of what is usually needed -- some $13 million. It is aimed at outfitting that agency with 2 MW of heating energy starting in 2013. Over the course of its projected 25-year lifetime, GeneSys will save the agency $21 million in heating costs, the experts claim.

That would mean a significant cost-benefit improvement tied to an energy source that is renewable and unlike solar or wind energy always available. If GeneSys proves economically and technically sound, the project could be exported to other countries in Europe, the scientists say.

"A geological structure like the one in Hanover can be found on a wide area that stretches east-west from Poland to Britain and north-south from Denmark until the northern part of the Harz mountain," Michael Kosinowski, the geologist in charge of GeneSys, told Spiegel Online.

Geothermal power plants rely on a heat flow system that pumps water downward into a well drilled into the ground. The high temperatures below heat up the water, which is then pumped back up to emit heat or produce electricity via a steam turbine.

GeneSys is special in that it only needs one hole, instead of two to pump the water down and back up. That means drilling costs can be slashed in half.

In Germany, geothermal energy is usually confined to small-scale pumps that rely on wells shortly below the surface. However, drilling for some of those systems have caused seismic disruptions and land instability.

In Staufen, southwestern Germany, the ground subsided in connection with the construction of a local geothermal plant. A plant project in Basel, Switzerland, was suspended because more than 10,000 seismic events measuring up to 3.4 on the Richter scale occurred over the first days of water injection.
Large geothermal plant planned in Germany - UPI.com