Objective
This project will demonstrate the profitability of a large space heating system in an area with mild climate and the full compatibility of the geothermal exploitation also in the most severe conditions (proximity to the Leaning Tower of Pisa within an intensive urbanization area) provided than an advanced monitoring network is kept into operation.
The innovation is connected with the doublet well required to exploit a low temperature reservoir and its district heating application in a 1,694 degree-days climatic area. Protection of the environment and safety are strong points of the project, because of the presence of an advanced monitoring system for topograhic, gravimetric and microseismic control.
The plant will allow a significant saving of fossil fuels and a reduction of NOx pollutants.
A production reinjection doublet is planned to exploit a geothermal reservoir underlying the Pisa plain (75 deg. C - 1,200 m) to provide thermal energy to the headquarters of the National Research Council (CNR) in Pisa. The design peak load and the yearly energy consumption for this dwelling (220,000 m3) are 7 MWth and 12,88 MWth respectively. The whole project is split into two steps : the first step includes drilling, well testing and the heat supply (by means of a heating exchange station) of the CNR headquarters and this step is now being supported by the Commission. The second step foresees the design and use of a heat pump and the supply of additional 18 MWth to a district heating system to be built by the Municipal gas Company.
Two plate heat exchangers (each 4,3 Gcal/h) will exchange the thermal energy from the geothermal water to the treated water which will circulate within a net (- 500 m) of HPDE pre-insulated steel pipes.
The project activities will be monitored from the early beginning in order to check the main geodynamic paramaters; the microseismic activity, the subsidence as well as the microgravity will also be controlled during the entire plant operation.
To realize the importance of this monitoring activities, it is worth stressing that the well doublet and the heating station are located some 2,500 m from the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
The thermal energy recoverable from the geothermal reservoir sums to 11,200 MWhth/yr in the first step (during the second step additional 28,200 MWhth/yr will be provided by means of heat pumps). The investment required for the first step sums to 6,900 MLit (3,401,461 ECU). The project can be developed in time span of 30 months approx. (first step only).
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringthermodynamic engineering
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energygeothermal energy
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
56122 Pisa
Italy