Fortum said he would quit on Thursday St1: n The Otaniemi geothermal heat project in Espoo, which has become known for the deepest hole in Finland drilled in Otaniemi. Fortum has been a partner in St1 in the project since 2014.
Fortum no longer considers the 6.4 km deep heat well to be economically viable because not enough hot water can be pumped up from the heat well. Originally, the intention was to feed water directly into the district heating network, but experiments showed that only hand-warm water comes up.
Thus, heat pumps would be needed between the heat well and the district heating network. It is not worth it because there are even simpler sources available for the dilute raw energy of heat pumps.
“The energy sector is developing rapidly, and other clean forms of production have overtaken geothermal production in terms of competitiveness. We will continue to focus our resources on promoting these projects,” says Fortum’s Vice President, Heating and Cooling Finland. Timo Piispa in the company bulletin.
In Espoo, Fortum intends to utilize Microsoft the cooling heat of the new giant data center to be built with the Blominmäki wastewater treatment plant. Tekniikka & Talous announced the Fortum-Microsoft project in mid-March.
Otaniemi’s holes were originally intended to produce 10 percent of Espoo’s district heating. Drilling work began in 2016.
Head of St1 Geothermal Operations Hannes Haapalahti states to Länsiväylä that the company has nothing new to say about the Otaniemi project. St1 also did not comment on questions about whether it was looking for a new partner or whether it was going to abandon the heat well.
Next week, however, St1 plans to publish a report outlining its views on the future of the energy sector.
According to the Bishop, Fortum has given up geothermal energy so far.
The Otaniemi heat well has two deep boreholes. The water heats up, or was meant to heat up, as the water pumped down passes deep inside the rock into the cracks in the rock from the inlet hole to the outlet side.
Aalto University professor interviewed by Länsiväylä Peter Lund estimates that the doctrine of the Otaniemi pilot project will not be wasted, even if commercial production is canceled. The information can be used to make so-called medium geothermal heat, ie 1–2 km deep heat wells.
On the other hand, Tekniikka & Talous said in December that there have been difficulties in several geothermal projects in Finland, both deep and medium.