Shallow geothermal energy use in industry in Germany

Abstract

Use of shallow geothermal energy for industrial purposes goes back to the 1960s, when large aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) plants were built for cooling within the textile industry in the Shanghai area, China. It took rather long to convince industry in Europe to try shallow geothermal technologies. While the economics looked promising, performance and, most important, reliability was questioned. Meanwhile a good number of successful applications can prove that such worries are unfounded, provided the geothermal systems are thoroughly designed and properly installed.
In this paper, an overview of the development of shallow geo thermal energy use for industrial purposes is given, focussing mainly on Germany, but touching some development in other European countries (starting with the EU-project IGEIA, Integration of Geothermal Energy in Industrial Applications, in 2006-2009). System concepts and experiences are presented, both for closed systems (borehole heat exchangers / BTES) and open systems (groundwater wells / ATES), respectively.
Some recent examples are highlighted, like the new headquarters of Leica Camera AG in Wetzlar, Germany, where two borehole heat exchanger fields serve as the central heat source and sink for a rather complex system providing space heating and cooling, and cooling for the machinery of the optics factory. At EGC 2013, the simulations for optimising the design of another project (a borehole heat exchanger field for cooling of a robotics factory) had been presented; now the completion of this project is described. Also a project using groundwater wells is included.