For Alice Chougnet, co-founder and president of Geosophy, the potential of geothermal energy is immense and adapts to “90% of the territory” of France.
The Senate has just adopted the bill for the acceleration of renewable energies, which provides for the systematic analysis of the basement in the event of construction and renovation of buildings to see if geo-energetic installations can be provided there. The executive also launched a large geothermal development plan last weekend. A double news that will launch a sector for the moment under-exploited. In any case, this is what Alice Chougnet, co-founder and president of Géosophy, eco guest of franceinfo, Wednesday, February 8, hopes.
The potential to “cover 50% of needs”
“As animals go into burrows to seek warmth in winter and coolness in summer, underlines the co-founder and president of Géosophy, it’s about going into the ground, a few meters underground. So we are not going to live in burrows! we will circulate water in the ground. This technology currently represents 1% of heating and cooling in France. It has the potential to cover 50% of needs. The geothermal plan presented last week plans to cover 20% of needs,” details the engineer by training.
We will not be able to install geo-energy everywhere notes Alice Chougnet. This is not possible on 10% of the territory because there are “Rocks that swell, dissolve, pollution, or drinking water. But that leaves us 90% of the territory as a playground,“ says Alice Chougnet. “There will be financial trade-offs to be made, depending on the type of building and its use”, develops the president of Geosophy.
>>> Extensive plan to promote geothermal energy
These are substantial investments initially but then “we have virtually no operating costs afterwards, for an energy source that will last 50 years, produced free of charge, sustainably and locally,” resumes Alice Chougnet. With also reduced bills: consumption can be divided by five, CO2 emissions by ten. The impact is very important, according to Alice Chougnet.
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