school energy&environment

An inexhaustible energy

The geothermal air-conditioning system is indicated in the White Paper for the Future “renewable sources of energy” COM97 of the EU as a possibility to heat and air-condition our homes in a manner that is clean and sustainable for the environment. In fact, this system produces very low levels of CO₂ and gases which are noxious for the environment: the emissions depend on the amount of electricity required to make the heat pumps operate, however, observing the performance of the heat pumps, the thermal energy obtained from the subsoil and “increased” by the pumps, is 4 times greater than the energy consumed.
The energy obtained from the subsoil is a renewable energy, rather, it is practically inexhaustible, and very clean: the use of endogenous heat in fact does not produce emissions of any kind, neither CO₂ nor other gases (like sulphur compounds or nitrogen oxide), nor fine particles. Thermovector fluids, which circulate in the closed-circuit probes, never come into contact with the ground or the water of the water-table and, in any case, it is guaranteed that materials that are not toxic for the environment are used. Closed circuits allow a great water saving. The water, once put in the system, is continuously reused. The installations are quite small and their visual impact is practically inexistent: once built, all that can be seen is the heat pump, the size of a fridge, and the warm water reservoir similar to a normal “boiler”. The noise of the pumps is similar to that of a fridge, they can therefore be installed inside the homes. The only “limit” to the diffusion of this new domestic air-conditioning is its use in big buildings (as for example a large building with numerous floors), which requires the installation of various probes (or deeper wells, with consequent higher expenses) and the installation a greater number of heat pumps.