Finland one step closer to having first geothermal district heating network
Winter view, Espoo, Finland (source: flickr/ Antti T. Nissinen, creative commons)
Carlo Cariaga
22 Sep 2022
The completion of the first thermal well by QHeat puts Finland one step closer to having the country's first geothermal district heating network.
Finnish geothermal heat company QHeat has announced the completion of drilling of the first thermal well of the Finnoo project in Espoo, Finland. Drilled to a depth of 1500 meters, the well will supply geothermal het to six apartment buildings as part of Finland’s first geothermal district heating network. We had previously reported on the start of this project back in 2020.
The heating network is being built in cooperation between QHeat, Avara, and TA-Asunnot Oy. With the heat transfer piping already installed, commissioning of the network is scheduled in the coming weeks. When completed, the Finnoo geothermal wells will produce a total of 1 900 MWh of energy per year.
“When all of QHeat’s geothermal wells are completed in Finnoo, the amount of purchased energy in the six apartment buildings in Djupsundsbäcken will be reduced by a quarter, and the climate emissions from heating will be reduced by 90% compared to district heating, calculated according to the specific emissions of Finnish electricity production,” said QHeat CTO Rami Niemi.
The thermal well drilled in Finnoo is the second deepest geothermal well to be commissioned in Finland. In Salo, QHeat has drilled a thermal well to a depth of 1600 meters for Lounavoima Oy.
More recently, we reported on a patent filed by QHeat for a thermal well design using coaxial flow. This same well design for utilizing heat energy from the subsurface is apparently being implemented in Finnoo.
Source: QHeat
