North American Network Operators Group
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Re: WSJ: Big tech firms seeking power

  • From: Petri Helenius
  • Date: Fri Jun 16 23:59:42 2006 
David Lesher wrote:
I don't know the area; but gather it's hydro territory?

How about water-source heat pumps? It's lots easier to cool
25C air into say 10-15C water than into 30C outside air.

Open loop water source systems do have their issues [algae, etc]
but can save a lot of power....
If you drill a vertical hole in the order of 50-200 meters deep, the cooling effect of water pumped through a pipe in that hole is in the order of 50W/m. So you can lose 10kW of heat into 200 meter hole. Not sure what the separation needs to be for this to be sustainable. Pretty good return on investment, considering drilling a hole is $3k-$6k.

Pete