Heating Greenhouses with Geothermal Energy

Abstract

Geothermal energy has been used most extensively in agriculture in greenhouse heating. Many European and other countries (Table1) are experimenting (Popovski and Popovska Vasilevska, 1998) but also regularly using geothermal energy for commercial out-of-season production of vegetables1 flowers and fruits. Although not in order of importance the reasons for choosing geothermal energy in this sector are: 1. Good correlation between the sites of greenhouse production areas and low enthalpy geo-thermal reservoirs. 2 The fact that greenhouses are one of the largest Iow-enthalpy energy consumers in agriculture. 3 Geothermal energy requires relatively simple heating instaIlations, but advanced computerized installations can later be added for total conditioning of the inside climate in the greenhouses. 4. Economic competitiveness of geothermal energy for greenhouse heating in many situations. 5. Strategic importance of energy sources that are locally available for food production.