Paris digs to harness heat

Drilling is underway in Paris’ 19th arrondissement as part of a new project which aims to provide ecologically clean heating for the district by making use of hot water deep below the Earth’s surface. 

A 120-foot mast once used for drilling oil towers above the dig site tunneling for access to the 135 degree water that lies 1.7 kilometers (one mile) below.  This water will be drawn up to heat another stock of water, which will in turn be pumped through apartment blocks to heat radiators and provide hot water.

"In Paris we're trying to adopt a strategy in which France is largely behind other European countries, because we've under-invested in renewable energies," said Denis Baupin, a Paris deputy mayor.

The plan will heat an estimated 12,000 apartments and other buildings due to be built by 2011 at a cost of $40 million.  It will provide 54 percent of the new area’s energy needs.

Geothermal energy is not new to Paris, which already makes use of around three-dozen other sites all dating back to the 1970s and 80s.  This new location is expected to prevent 14,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide from emitting into the city’s already polluted air each year.   This is roughly the same amount an average car would produce if taken on a 290,000 mile trip, which is further than the distance between the Earth and the moon.

Michel Galas of CPCU, the heating company carrying out the work which is jointly owned by the City of Paris and the energy group GDF Suez, could not provide figures comparing the cost of geothermal energy to the cost of gas or oil alternatives, but said that geothermal is financially “competitive” compared to gas.