For millions of years, invisible streams of water have run deep in the earth below Manhattan at a constant temperature of 65 degrees, a source of energy that seems beyond exhaustion ”” and beyond reach. But eight months ago, a seminary in Chelsea began to pump water from those streams to heat its buildings in the winter and cool them in the summer.
“It’s forever noiseless, forever pollution-less, forever carbon-free,” said Maureen Burnley, the executive vice president of the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church.
For the seminary, and now about 60 other places in Manhattan, the unseen bounty of the earth is being harvested by geothermal pumps. Manhattan is geologically suited for these deep wells. From a depth of 1,500 to 1,800 feet, the pumps deliver the consistently moderate temperatures of underground water to the surface, where it works like a refrigerant. It carries energy.
For a nanosecond I thought the story was about General drilling deep into the faith. Good to see the Seminary focusing on what is truly essential and providing a prophetic witness for our day.
I’m encouraged: It’s been nearly an hour since Kendall posted this, and so far there’s been only one snarky shot at TEC and its institutions. In the past you folks have been much quicker to pounce on any semblance of an excuse to go on the attack against the apostates, no matter how off-topic it is. Maybe this is progress ….
Well the day is yet young, but we wouldn’t want any snarky comments would we D.C.? Oh dear no.
Sheesh! It’s called a ground water heat pump system and they have been around for years. The reason you don’t see more installations of them is that they are expensive to install and therefore have a long payback period, as the article mentions. I’d love to have one for my house but I can’t afford to drill two 500 foot deep water shafts in my backyard and attach the necessary heat transfer equipment.
As for snarky comments, if I was going to make one it might involve the article’s mention of Manhattan schist at the seminary :), but we won’t go there!
Contemplating Heaven
Obviously the NYT’s headline writer knows not a thing about TEC theology, in which neither Heaven nor Hell exists. (Snarkiness off)
For Pete’s sake, here’s the definitive snark on this one:
“I always knew where TEC was headed; I just didn’t know they’d think of such a creative way to get there.”
Now don’t make me come back here!
I’m interested in the technology itself. Is it sustainable? Is there waste? Are you using up non-renewable resources or upsetting any vital natural balance?
Helen,
The technology is well understood and sustainable (just think of your cool basement in the summer). It is expensive and requires some means of providing energy for the pumps.
A much more interesting technology, that is just as old, has a pumping station near the ocean which pumps ammonia gas to the very cool ocean depths where it liquefies. On its return to the surface, heat from the sun changes the liquid into ammonia “steam†which drives a turbine thus creating electricity. There is enough electricity to power the pumps and a small town as well. This is used to some affect on the Big Island of Hawaii.
Again, expensive…and the ammonia is quite corrosive (and poisonous if released into the atmosphere). Also, won’t work year round in temperate climates. With everything in life, there are tradeoffs: nothing is free except salvation.
this is the only thing in common i have with the ‘new’ religion. bravo to them for doing this, now if they would only return to their natural Christian roots….
We have extensively used geothermal heat in New Zealand – most notably in Rotorua – including building large electricity generation plants run by geothermal steam which produce about 12% of our national electricity. The experience here is this is not an unlimited resource, as this article suggests, but rather the more it is used, the cooler temperatures become.
In our case we have had to stop a lot of houses from using this heat source around Rotorua because it was having a significantly detrimental effect on the geology of the place, including stopping the geysers and mud-pools on which the tourist trade around there is based.
I hope the city of New York appreciates the scarce resource that is has, and like with all scarce resources uses it economically and well.
If you want to know more about the NZ experience a one-pager is available here:
http://www.ew.govt.nz/Environmental-information/Geothermal-resources/
Excellent use of the local resource situation.
As a seminarian at General, I am thrilled to see this project going forward. If some of you knew the state of the infrastructure, you would be appalled. For example, I had virtually no hot water for my first 18 months of seminary. I did not leave, or throw a fit, I wanted to be at General for its Anglican witness. I have certainly had my concerns about the way GTS is run, but overall I would very much defend it against charges that it is departing from the historic faith (in a way that I cannot defend other seminaries).
For example, we had a celebration of the 1928 Prayer Book last week in our chapel in associate with Anglicans for Traditional Faith. I know that TEC and often General get beaten up on here, but there are signs of hope, movement, and sanity here that will only be born out when those graduating assume leadership positions. We are no EDS I assure all of you!
Peace be upon all of you as we enter the season of Thanksgiving and Christmas!
It sounds like a great idea. No comment to make on that; so is fixing the roof if it leaks. As to commenting on other matters in the same breath? Come on; this isn’t low hanging fruit, it’s on the ground. No point.