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at the 2009 PGWA Winter
Conference
by Todd Giddings, Education Committee Chairman Geothermal Drilling Opportunities for Water Well Drillers: A Perfect Storm Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 12:30 pm This keynote presentation will discuss how the concurrence of several factors has created a “perfect storm” for extreme growth in the geothermal industry. There is currently an accelerating demand for geothermal systems in response to the ever-increasing prices for heating oil, natural gas, and propane. The new $2,000 tax credit for residential and 10% for commercial geothermal systems is going to supercharge the growth rate in the geothermal industry. There are currently million-dollar geothermal loop-field drilling projects that are on hold due to the lack of availability of qualified geothermal borehole drillers. Retrofitting geothermal systems to replace existing heating systems operating on heating oil, natural gas, and propane has created a large retrofit market demand for geothermal systems. Concurrently, the decline in the demand for water wells for new homes has created an availability of water-well drilling rigs and crews. Together, these factors have created the “perfect storm” for extreme growth in the geothermal industry and in the water-well drilling industry.
The Three Types of Wells That Make Geothermal Systems Work Thursday, January 29, 2009 at 1:30 pm This presentation will describe the operation of each of the three types of geothermal systems: open-loop, standing-column, and closed-loop and will discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Well yield and water-quality requirements for open-loop and standing-column wells and the thermal conductivity requirements for the grout in closed-loop systems will be discussed. The drill rig and grouter equipment requirements will be reviewed and compared. Case histories of both open-loop and closed-loop residential and small commercial geothermal systems will be used to illustrate why the different types of systems were selected and installed. How geothermal heat pumps operate, and the advantages of desuperheaters to heat hot water will be discussed. The use of a geothermal heat pump to do radiant floor heating and also provide air conditioning will be reviewed. The operational savings from installing an optional two-stage scroll compressor will be explained, and the opportunities in the retrofit segment of the geothermal marketplace will be presented.
Geothermal Boreholes vs. Water Wells: More Differences Than You Think Friday, January 30, 2009 at 10:00 am While the same air-rotary and mud-rotary drill rigs that are used to drill and construct water wells are used to drill the geothermal boreholes in a loop field, there are many differences between these two types of “holes in the ground”. This presentation will discuss 12 significant differences between water wells and geothermal boreholes that directly affect the net profits from loop field drilling, loop installation, and grouting with thermally enhanced grout. Several recommendations, tips, and tricks for production borehole drilling, looping, and grouting will be presented and discussed. Actual loop field drilling examples will be used to show how some major drilling problems were solved. Air-rotary hammer drilling, air-rotary Polycrystalline Diamond Cutter (PDC) bit drilling, and roller-cone bit mud-rotary drilling examples will be reviewed to illustrate how high drilling rates of penetration were achieved and maintained during the loop field borehole construction process. (continued on next page) This presentation will discuss the opportunities for water-well drillers to grow their businesses by becoming geothermal borehole drillers for closed-loop systems. The business growth opportunities also include water-supply wells, return wells, and standing-column wells for open-loop geothermal systems. The International Ground Source Heat Pump Association’s new Accredited Drillers Training course on the application of production drilling and borehole construction for geothermal systems will be described to explain how this new accreditation is designed to help water-well drillers enter the geothermal industry.
About the Presenter of These Three Geothermal Technical Sessions: Todd Giddings has over 30 years of experience designing and installing geothermal heat pump systems. He is a registered professional geologist and the principal hydrogeologist of Todd Giddings and Associates, Inc. The Geo-Tec Systems division of Todd Giddings and Associates, Inc. has designed and installed geothermal heat pump systems in new homes up to 8,000 square feet in size and in commercial buildings up to 10,000 square feet in size. The water-to-air geothermal heat pump in his home has been operating for more than 30 years and has required only two replacement parts, the fan motor and the electrical contactor. This longevity demonstrates the reliability of many geothermal heat pump systems. His office building is 22 years old and has seven geothermal heat pump units that operate so efficiently that his electric power company routinely performs diagnostics on his building's electric meter. The electric utility's calculations of the kilowatt-hours per square foot per year for his office building are so far below the utility’s expected values that their billing computer flags the electric meter as under-registering. Todd is a member of the International Ground Source Heat Pump Association (IGSHPA) and is an IGSHPA Accredited Geothermal System Installer, an IGSHPA Accredited Vertical Loop Installer, and an IGSHPA Accredited Trainer for the IGSHPA three-day Installer Training course. He is a Director and Treasurer of the Pennsylvania Ground Water Association and is Webmaster of their Web site at www.pgwa.org . He is a member and past director of the National Ground Water Association, and is a contributing author to the revised “Guidelines for the Construction of Vertical Boreholes for Closed Loop Heat Pump Systems” being prepared by the National Ground Water Association.
Two drilling companies with three air-rotary drill rigs and two service trucks are completing the 25,000 feet of closed-loop geothermal boreholes for this central Pennsylvania project.
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