Geothermal heat crucial element in heating for Paris airports
Air France Airbus at Paris, Orly Airport (source: Flickr, Aero Icarus, Creative commons)
Parker O'Halloran
14 Jun 2017
Significant reductions in CO2 emissions at major airports in Paris due in large part to geothermal energy.
In a release on its targets for CO2 emissions reductions, Group ADP, which operates the three airports in Paris, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Paris-Orly and Paris-Le Bourget reported that they have reduced CO2 emissions by up to 63% between 2009 and 2016.
Through Paris Aéroport, the company handles more than 97 million passengers and 2.2 million metric tonnes of freight and mail at Paris-Charles de Gaulle and Paris-Orly, and more than 42 million passengers in airports abroad through its subsidiary Aéroports de Paris Management.
Geothermal energy at Paris-Orly Airport is one of the main drivers of these reductions in emissions and serves as an example of how using renewable energies is being developed at the Paris airports.
In use since 2011, geothermal heating of buildings at Paris-Orly accounts for 70% of the heating in the terminals and new buildings, including the Askia office building in the Cœur d’Orly district. Since it was launched, geothermal energy has avoided the production of 50,000 metric tonnes of CO2.
It allows Paris-Orly Airport each year to reduce its consumption of gas by 4,000 tonnes of oil equivalent, which is comparable to the annual heating of 3,200 homes. The airport is thus able to avoid the emission of approximately 9,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.
At Paris-Orly two wells were drilled to a depth of 1,800 meters to meet the heat requirements. The water comes up at 74 degrees Celsius. The overall district heating system is about 35 km (22 miles) long and travels through 108 sub-stations.
For more information please see: Aéroport de Paris – Orly
