When you are trying to make the case for sustainable energy, it’s good to have the cold, hard facts on your side. But many renewable energy projects don’t keep those kind of detailed records that can persuade skeptics.
Now the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is preparing to get that kind of data from a geothermal installation that will be part of a new Ikea store in Centennial Colorado.
With the NREL’s help, the furniture retailer is drilling 130 five and half inch diameter holes 500 feet deep for a geothermal system to heat and cool a 415,000 square-foot, two-level store. The loops of piping will be filled with water and glycol to heat and cool the building.
The NREL will collect information about how the system operates and the tweaks engineers use to improve its efficiency. The lab hopes the project will set the standard for geothermal power in large retail stores throughout the country. The information NREL collects from the Ikea store will be available to researchers around the world and could become a model for future geothermal installations.
Geothermal heat pumps use 25 to 50% less electricity than conventional heating or cooling systems. Although digging the system will cost additional money, Ikea expects to make back the money through energy cost savings within a reasonable time period.
“We have a much larger cooling load than we do a heating load," explains Douglas Wolfe, Ikea's Project Construction Manager for the new store, which will open in 2011.
"Believe it or not, even in the dead of winter we will be cooling on some days more than heating just because of the number of people who will be in the store. All those customers and co-workers generate a lot of heat — that, along with all the lighting, the heat generated by the restaurant and other equipment throughout the building — increases the cooling load." Actually, the store will need additional cooling in the summer which will be provided by an ice-storage system.
Image credit: Erin Blaskie
Alison Pruitt is a freelance writer/editor living near Washington DC. She has written about a variety of issues, including education, healthcare, IT, the arts, and energy/environment -- and has worked with the U.S. Department of Energy. She has a B.A. from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in English Literature from Rutgers University.
Any opinion contained in this article is solely that of the writers, and does not necessarily shapes or reflect the editorial opinions of Energy Boom.
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