Quote:
Originally Posted by milomilo
Then why is no one building it? I don't have the answer, but if it was the magic bullet everybody says it is you'd think some progress would have been made into using it.
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There are a couple of different types of geothermal systems. One is simply using the ground as a giant heat sink. That can be done almost anywhere as the ground below the frost line maintains a constant 10C temperature. Systems that use this type of shallow geothermal system are generally heat pumps that uses the refrigeration cycle by removing heat from the ground and moving it to a condenser that heats air or water. Deep geothermal actually gets you hot water or even steam, but the viability of that is wholly determined by how far down you need to drill to access that thermal energy. That's not something you can do just anywhere. That geothermal community around Okotoks uses deep geothermal so they're able to pump hot water directly out of the ground and use it as a heating medium. But if I remember correctly that was a very costly system to install which required a lot of grant money from government to make viable.
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