Geothermal to provide heating and cooling in Ferney-Voltaire, France

CERN Globe in Geneva, Switzerland (source: Torbjorn Toby Jorgensen, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Carlo Cariaga 22 Nov 2023

Work has started on a geothermal district heating and cooling network in Ferney-Voltaire in Ain, France, near the Geneva Airport. Aside from drawing heat from the subsurface, the network will also utilize waste heat from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Conseil européen pour la Recherche nucléaire / CERN) particle accelerator. The project is targeting commissioning by 2030.

The local public company Terre d’innovation has invested EUR 30 million into the project. The project is also receiving EUR 10 million from the French Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME). When completed, the network will provide low-emissions heating and cooling to 195,000 square meters of office space, business facilities, housing, and public infrastructure. It will also generate 4,500 jobs.

Celsius Energy, in partnership with Dalkia, will be working on the geothermal heating project. Celsius will drill 173 wells to depths of about 230 meters. Hot water maintained at the subsurface will supply the heat exchangers.

“A power plant and several substations will distribute 20 GWh of heat and 6 GWh of cold to the future ZAC, or the equivalent of 2,000 hours of heat and 1,600 hours of cold per year ,” explains Sylvain Thierry, COO and Co-Founder of Celsius Energy. “ The whole thing will be equipped with sensors, which will allow us to have a digital twin for permanent monitoring with the operator.”

In a previous interview with ThinkGeoEnergy, Thierry described the Ferney-Voltaire project as the largest shallow geothermal project in France and a “green field” project that will serve newly constructed buildings.

Source: L’usine Nouvelle