Geothermal Utility Phases

Phase 1

Phase one of the geothermal Utility will begin with Central Park as a test basis for the more massive  City wide utility. The Central Park test utility will tap the thermal energy of the municipal water supply, geothermal loops buried beneath the park, and if cost prohibitive will tap the thermal energy stored in the lake as well. This test will determine the viability of a city wide system by a small scale real world test. This test will heat and cool the new Sandusky Events center and ancillary buildings, the new Cameo entertainment complex, the Cameo Dive Bar and Heated Pool, and the new administration building if the city makes the proposed move to the Madison School structure, as well as any residential housing directly adjacent to the park that wishes to participate in the testing. 

Once conclusive evidence has been established by a year long study of the viability of the system then as practical and with support of residents the utility can be expanded utilizing the rest of the parks and a PPP with the  City can be formed in a Publicly owned Co-operative and financed through the USDA RUS (Rural Utility Service Program) This Co-operative will be serviced in conjunction with the city water department greatly expanding its role in not only providing water to residents but a heating and cooling utility as well.

A large geothermal utility such as this has a large potential to draw manufacturing jobs to the area through cheap heating and cooling costs, but there are other benefits as well. When a geothermal utility is used in conjunction with our industrial parks it will give companies such as plastic thermoforming companies, plastic recycling companies, heat treating companies, forging companies, and smelting companies the benefit of having a utility that they can sell their residual waste heat to via a heat exchange capture system. This makes their businesses more profitable. 

Obviously, companies that rely on heated water to produce products or services will find the Geothermal Utility especially beneficial as this cheap energy will lower their cost of production. Such companies would include Fuel Distilleries (Ethanol), Spirit Distilleries, Breweries, Dairy Pasteurization Plants, as well as other food processors and bottled water purifiers .

Phase 2

Installation of the city wide geothermal utility could commence based upon the outcome of the Central Park Project and a marketing campaign to draw industry that would be made more profitable with the geothermal utility would be implemented. Expansion of the utility through captured thermal waste in production processes of private businesses can bolster the efficiency of the Geothermal Utility and provide a revenue stream to companies for their waste heat. Expansion of the utility to provide hot water to water tanks via roof mounted solar thermal vacuum tubes. For example: by leasing the rooftop of Sandusky High School to the Geothermal Utility for installation of solar thermal vacuum tubes enough hot water can be produced to not only supply the school but potentially more than 100 other houses. The average ROI on the vacuum tubes is about 10 years versus the cost of a water heater.

The radical reduction of the use of natural gas should per the law of supply and demand help to lower the price locally of natural gas. This is especially true if an Anaerobic digester can tap the cities sewage stream to produce Natural Gas making the price of land in our industrial parks coupled with the low price of fuel one of the most enticing locations in America to expand a production base to.

The potential of this system could massively increase the local population and economy because of the desired economic benefits in place.

Phase 3

If solar panels or windmills become a cost effective form of energy able to exist with no subsidies in the market place; which they are expected to do in 10 to 20 years time, would allow the Co-operative to expand into other forms of environmentally friendly renewable energy that are profitable. Sub-contracting with various conservation companies to offer energy reducing studies and products such as LED and fluorescent lighting where profitable could be added to the Co-operative’s repertoire. Other passive forms of conservation such as solar tubes and sky lights for interior lighting can be used to offer a complete profitable environmental conservation solution.

Based upon proven viability the timeline may change to resemble something like this:

Phase 1

The city must reconfigure the parks for more parking, better traffic flow, and better safety. The removal of streets and the addition of traffic rotaries will provide for larger parks and safer green areas. These reconfigured parks must then be allowed to form PPP’s (Public Private Partnerships)

Phase 2

Lease the land beneath the Parks to a Geothermal Utility (PPP). Lions Park, Central Park, Columbus Park, Huron Park, and Shoreline Park.

This provides an income stream to our parks while lowering the cost of government (also lowers government owned facility heating and cooling expenses) and lowers residents heating and cooling cost.

A large geothermal utility such as this has a huge synergistic economic development potential with an additional pairing of an ethanol plant and Bio Gas Plant (Anaerobic Digester).

A Bio Gas Plant produces Natural Gas from rotting organic waste such as sewage, agricultural derived livestock manure, slaughterhouse wastes, food processing wastes, curbside food recycling programs, and agricultural silage. This proven unsubsidized process produces both Natural Gas and a nutrient rich byproduct farmers can use for fertilizer.

The Bio Gas process relies on hot water to fuel the anaerobic digestion which can be supplied by the geothermal utility.

The natural gas produced by the plant can be utilized by a Natural Gas Utility or it could be used by an Ethanol Plan (commonly referred to as a distillery) to produce environmentally friendly ethanol by using the gas to heat water in the distillation process. The distillation process creates steam thats thermal energy can be recovered by the use of heat exchangers to help bolster the water temperature used in the Geo-Thermal Utility.

This is a complete synergistic loop of complimenting environmentally friendly energy technologies that are most profitable when operating in conjunction.

The Geothermal Utility can be bolstered and expanded through tapping thermal energy from the municipal water supply, commercial heat exchange and recovery systems capturing wasted heat, and solar thermal heat exchange panels. Passive projects such as painting municipal water towers a dark color for better heat absorption will only add to the systems efficiency.

 

The USDA makes money available for starting all three environmentally friendly projects.

Phase 3

Central Park Development will start with the construction of the Cameo Pizza/City of Sandusky Events Center and ancillary buildings. This main attraction will draw large amounts of patrons to the downtown area and will help to stimulate the economy by increasing the business potential of all downtown businesses by virtue of increased traffic flow. This additional business will provide more funds to the city by an expanded tax base which can be used to improve infrastructure and atmosphere of the downtown. This will increase the value of downtown buildings and the profitability of downtown businesses making it easier to get improvement loans.

Phase 4

Construction of Washington Park and Schade Mylander access towers and the construction of raised multilevel municipal pedestrian thoroughfares along the downtown Columbus avenue business district connecting both access towers creating a new massive downtown shopping plaza.

Phase 5

Downtown businesses form “The Downtown Marketing Cooperative” that operates in conjunction with the counties economic development director to actively develop and structure a plan to lure top name vendors to the downtown area. This lets the city and the new economic development team better plan and market properties as well as plan and acquire funds for a more homogeneous and eye pleasing development of downtown. It allows for a more consistent style, look, and architecture as well as a better sqft lease price of their property..