Geothermal heating project in Paris-Saclay in France to decrease bills for residents
Learning Centre of the Ecole Polytechnique Paris-Saclay (source: Sou Fujimoto Architects)
Alexander Richter
4 Oct 2017
New geothermal heating system being developed for University near Paris, France that is expected to decrease heating costs for users by 20%.
Reported this week, on the campus of École Polytechnique, in Palaiseau, a drilling rig is at work a few steps from the equestrian center. Teams of technicians are performing the third drilling on the plateau. The day before they had to interrupt operations by hitting an obstacle at 150 m depth. “It happens often, we resumed this morning,” said Fabien Constant, reservoir engineer. Ultimately, it is necessary to dig up to about 650 m. ”
It is at this distance that the aquifer of the Albian is found. A deep underground water table, present in a large part of the Paris Basin, will serve to feed the whole network of cold and heat of the urban campus of Paris-Saclay.
Since 2015, the Paris-Saclay Public Environmental Planning Agency (EPA) has started energy transition work on the plateau. Polytechnique, University Paris-Sud, Centrale Supélec since this month, and soon new schools, student and private residences, shops, and perhaps even in 2025, the Universal Exhibition …, the plateau of Saclay changes every week of face. The EPA therefore wished to take advantage of all these new developments to try to develop a 50% renewable energy network on the site.
20% cheaper utility bills
“We are developing a 4th generation system for heat networks,” said Guillaume Planchot, director of the development of heat and cooling networks at Idex, which builds with Egis. “The goal is to have a new model of use and consumption with this network. From now on, the consumer will also be a producer of energy. ”
To this end, two central heating and cooling plants will be built at the Polytechnique campus and on the Moulon ZAC. They will function like a kind of large boiler room. The water present in the Albian aquifer has a temperature of about 28 ° C. It is pumped and raised to the surface, and will redistribute this heat in its network and its 55 substations. Then, all the infrastructures on the Saclay plateau were supplied.
This geothermal operation will generate more than 50% renewable heat, but also reduce the bills. “It’s about 20% cheaper than a conventional bill,” says Guillaume Planchot. You will never pay EUR700 per year for a two-room apartment. The work is expected to be completed in 2021 and will avoid the emission of more than 6,000 t of CO2 per year.
Source: Le Parisien
