Energy piles are a source of green heat along with solar thermal energy. But, from that point onward the similarities cease.

There is also a common misconception about energy piles which we would like to clear-up here, before we start this article. The use of energy piles, as described here and as commonly used in this respect, has very little if anything to do with geothermal energy where steam and hot water are used to drive turbines to generate electricity. Geothermal energy requires a source temperature of more than 100 degrees Centigrade to drive a generating turbine. That is not what an energy pile requires or needs.

Besides, very few properties are lucky enough to be located in a part of the globe where a borehole, no more than say 100 feet deep, would experience any significant geothermal temperature rise at all. Energy piles therefore don’t operate at anything like that temperature and are much more useful than geothermal for most of us.

The energy pile is in fact simply a device which uses the thermal capacity of the ground around the pile to act to store heat. It works on a principle similar to a flywheel in that heat pumped from the ground in winter will be replenished during the summer. In fact energy piles can also be used for cooling buildings in summer when they work in reverse, and exactly the same principle works in both cases in hot and cold climates.

Therefore, energy piles are a great idea which could load and unload so-called seasonal thermal storage for huge numbers of properties worldwide. Their usefulness is not limited to the presence of geothermal heat in the nearby rocks. All you need to do is drill one or more piles one hundred to several hundred feet deep beneath or beside the property, and install a closed circuit of pipework.

Energy piles like this, combined with heat pumps (a refrigerator contains a heat pump), and fuel cells using hydrogen to provide the electricity to run the heat pump, would be a very clean method for heating homes and offices.

Such systems are not geographically limited and could be used almost everywhere, except in permafrost zones. They could supply a rapidly increasing proportion of the world’s energy supply if fuel cell technology and sustainable hydrogen production methods can be mastered and developed.

However, unless and until fuel cell technology, and clean hydrogen production to fuel those cells (such as by daily solar recharge of a hydrogen cell), is developed (and available at a low cost), there is still a need for some fossil (carbonaceous) fuel to be used to power the heat pump. Nevertheless, 40% savings in energy use overall can readily be achieved against a fairly low investment in the energy piles, and the necessary heat transfer circuit, from the property to the energy pile or piles.

The cost of the construction of energy piles will vary with the type of ground. Boring into hard rock will cost more than into softer ground.

Concrete piles are usually used in the ground storage system, and they house a closed water pumping circuit made from plastic (usually polyethylene or polypropylene) piping. The piping which is inserted as a loop into the borehole bore, runs from the top to the bottom, before turning and returning to the top.

The pipes are used to circulate a heat transfer fluid, (of water plus anti-freeze in cold climates), which transports the ground temperature to the central control system for the building air conditioning services. These piles can be used either as heat collectors or heat conducting heat dissipater’s.

Steve Evans also writes for the UK Anaerobic Digestion web site.

By Rick Chapo

Let us be clear; a fuel cell is only a clean source of power if the power used to create the hydrogen charge in the fuel cell is green (from renwable fuel source). There is no reason why the fuel cell cannot be powered from renewable sources, and if it is the polluting emmissions it makes are tiny, and safe.

Future Energy Concepts – The Fuel Cell: With global warming, general pollution and rising fuel prices, our future energy needs are a hot topic. Fuel cells may represent a solution, one coming sooner than later.

A fuel cell is a fairly vague phrase thrown around by those in the know and those that know relatively little. Regardless of the particular design, a fuel cell is essentially a cell similar to a battery in which a chemical process occurs to produce electricity. In this case, however, the fuel is hydrogen. The basic idea is to combine hydrogen with oxygen in a process that produces electricity. This electricity is then used as we would normally use it in our lives.

If you read the paper or watch the news, one would think the concept of hydrogen fuels in a new one. In fact, it is not. The first one was created in 1839. The problem, of course, was it was inefficient and there wasn’t much interest since fossil fuels were plentiful and our energy needs were tiny compared to today. It wasn’t until the 1960s that much interest was shown in the energy platform. As with many advances, NASA decided to use fuel cells to power the Gemini and Apollo spacecrafts. Unfortunately, the trick has been translating this limited use to wide spread applications in daily life.

A common misconception is a fuel cell represents renewable energy. Very clearly, it does not. It is a device, not an energy platform. It is like saying a hydroelectric dam is a renewable energy. The dam is a machine to harness a renewable energy resource, but not an energy source in and of itself.

The fuel cell works much the same way. It is a methodology for harnessing energy from hydrogen. The particular method can be clean or dirty, to wit, one can use water or coal for the base material. Obviously, coal is not much help.

Fuel cells can be run, in theory, on any material containing hydrogen. This means renewable energy sources such as hydrogen, biogas, and so on. The primary goal is to focus on water and other renewable sources because of their inherent clean advantages. When hydrogen is used, for instance, it produces no tangible pollution or greenhouse gases. The byproduct, instead, is simply water.

There are a few hurdles that must be overcome before hydrogen fuel cells really become a viable energy platform. First, the technology is such that the fuel cells are far too large and heavy to be used for practical purposes.

The infamous hydrogen car is not currently viable because of this, although test cars from primarily German manufacturers are being evaluated. The second problem is efficiency, which is to say fuel cells are not. Currently, fuel cells produce energy at a cost of about 10 times that of fossil fuels, and that is a positive estimate. Again, not a viable option.

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While these may seem like significant hurdles, they actually point to the viability of hydrogen fuel cells as a power source. These problems are focused on technical aspects of delivery, not on whether the process works. If there is anything we are good at as a species, it is making technological breakthroughs. If we can build a hydrogen nuclear weapon, surely we can build a hydrogen fuel cell.

Rick Chapo is with SolarCompanies.com, a directory of solar energy companies. Visit us to read more articles on renewable energy.

FACT FILE:

A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device. It produces electricity from external supplies of fuel (on the anode side) and oxidant (on the cathode side). These react in the presence of an electrolyte. Generally, the reactants flow in and reaction products flow out while the electrolyte remains in the cell. Fuel cells can operate virtually continuously as long as the necessary flows are maintained.

Fuel cells differ from batteries in that they consume reactant, which must be replenished, while batteries store electrical energy chemically in a closed system. Additionally, while the electrodes within a battery react and change as a battery is charged or discharged, a fuel cell’s electrodes are catalytic and relatively stable.