Part 5

GEOCOGEN Project – Part 5

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Part 5 – Ecological Concerns

Well, there are not many. The current design is to run the facility for about 50 years, at which point the rock core will have cooled down by about 50°C (80°F). The interesting part is, if we wait for another 50 years or so, the rock will have heated up again, and we could go through the same cycle again! Solution: build two plants for one consumer block 50 years apart, and switch every 50 years. Talk about sustainability!

There will be hardly any emissions: nothing is burned, so no CO2 or NOx or SOx or CO will be produced. There are no hydrocarbons, so no VOC (volatile organic compounds) will be produced. No dust since everything is contained in a close loop. The water is recycled for the most part so there will be almost no water usage (there will be some low-level steam/water losses, particularly if a district heating system concept is used). Efficient design practices will produce a plant that consumes a large percentage of the heat so that there is little waste heat pollution, particularly when compared to a conventional thermal power plant, which means no ugly cooling tower and no heating of any river or stream and no new lake for cooling. There will be no fuel transport and no combustion waste so transportation-based pollution also will be at a minimum.

The most serious concerns are connected with the construction of the tunnel. The excavated material will be essentially the stone that the tunnel removes. Most likely, there will be silicates, some other relatively rare minerals which can most likely be reclaimed above ground, and the remainder should make excellent inert road or construction fill and aggregate for the project’s own structural elements.

The footprint for the electrical generation plant is small, about the size of a large office building, but this can also be installed underground to eliminate it as a visual “pollution.” The district heating piping can be underground as well – but that would be a question of finances versus aesthetics. The electrical transformers and switchgear can be disguised reasonably well so that they are not apparent.

Over the 50-year life of the project, there may be some surface level subsidence centring on the tunnel – roughly 1,5 meters (5 feet) after 50 years. This can be ignored, planned for, or even filled to maintain the original level. Remember, in the second 50 years, as the stone reheats, the surface should rise again!

In the case of a major electrical upset outside the plant that causes our generators to go off line, there could be some high pressure steam venting until the situation stabilises.

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GEOCOGEN Project – Part 5