It is nothing new when I say that the aviation industry has taken plenty of slack from the media and the environmentalists across the globe in the past couple of decades. The problem with the wings of the world is that they cannot do too much to go green and often cannot afford the additional charges that going green carry along with it. The aviation industry has seen a major slump in the past 7 years and it is realistically a bit too much to expect them to go green each and every time. But they are doing a fairly good job, even though progress is slow.
Orly Airport, one of the two big airports serving Paris, is to extract geothermal energy from deep underground to slash its heating bills. The airport is all set to go green by the use of geothermal energy and two shafts each 1,700 meters deep will be drilled on the airport’s perimeter to access a water table warmed by heat emanating from the Earth’s hot core. This means that the airport will no longer have to rely on conventional energy sources for some of its purposes and that is indeed a huge step forward for a major airport of Europe.
Drawn upwards by natural pressure, the water will emerge at the surface at 74 degrees Celsius and then be injected into the airport’s heating system. It will then be pumped back into the ground at a temperature of 45 C. this is also means that the airport will not be interfering with the natural cycle of the spring and it will not use the water and leave the place out of any. The water will only be a medium to extract heat from the earth’s inner layers to heat the airport. This truly is the remarkable part.
The project, launched after a technical and financial feasibility study, will cost 11 million euros (17.27 million dollars). The Orly-Ouest terminal, part of Orly-South, the airport’s Hilton Hotel, and two business districts will be hooked up to the system from 2011. This surely must inspire other airports across the planet to look towards green technologies and green alternatives!
