Water of over 100 degrees Celsius could propel power generators for a zero-carbon city
Abu Dhabi’s renewable energy company, Masdar, is planning to drill 5,000-metre-deep wells in search of water with temperature above 100 degrees Celsius, according to a consultant.
A digital imaging of a Masdar City building
This water must be hot enough to propel power generators for a zero-carbon city, said Jay Witherspoon, operations director and technology leader at CH2M Hill, a consultant for the green development Masdar City.
“The thermal energy can offset the electrical energy needed to cool the city,” Witherspoon said, speaking to Bloomberg.
Masdar City is situated in Abu Dhabi, which holds more than seven per cent of the world’s oil reserves. The city would need 12,000 cubic metres of water a day when it’s completed.
Alan Frost, director of Masdar’s property development unit, earlier said the company would know by June whether the well it has been drilling on site for geothermal heat would yield enough heat to be used by the city.
Solar panels, whose commercial viability remains in question, and a geothermal well are amongst the options being considered by Masdar City to generate clean energy for its hot water and airconditioning systems.
“The view is that, at the moment, we’re really backing off from bold statements about where exactly it’s going to come from,” Frost said. He added that energy-neutral would be achieved if solar panels were to be used solely, but stressed that energy had to be cost-effective.
Solar panels will be used on the roof of the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology building during the first stage, while other buildings in the Abu Dhabi-based project will be designed to accommodate solar panels in the future.
A planned city being built by the Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, Masdar already operates a solar plant on site with a capacity to generate 10 megawatts. It will rely entirely on solar energy and other renewable energy sources.
Noting the decreasing cost of solar technology, Frost said it would be unwise to buy all of the power capacity now. He added that Masdar might rely also on renewable energy generated off-site by the project’s other divisions, as this would be more cost-effective.
The government of Abu Dhabi targets to generate seven per cent of the emirate’s electricity from renewables by 2020. However, it doesn’t have a subsidy plan for that goal yet. One system being considered by Masdar is the feed-in tariff wherein owners of solar panels are paid a premium for every kilowatt-hour of electricity they generate.
A digital aerial view of Masdar City
