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    Sustainable Development

    Geothermal energy

    Ingénieur chimiste récupérant les échantillons dans un préleveur rejetteur sur la station de contrôle à Claye Souilly
    Paris-Orly Paris-Orly is moving to geothermal energy
    True to the commitments made within the frame of the Grenelle Environment Forum in 2007, Aéroports de Paris is building a geothermal plant that will start providing heating by the end of 2010.

    An ideal location

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    Orly airport is located above a vast reserve of natural hot water, called "Le Dogger".

    This water layer, which is some 1,800 meters underground, contains naturally-heated hot water at 74°C.

    Aéroports de Paris, in close technical and financial partnership with the Ile-de-France Region and ADEME (Agence de l'Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l'Energie – French Energy and Environmental Agency), is currently building a twinned geothermal facility to provide part of the heating for Orly Airport's buildings by December 2010.



    A heat exchange system

    The drilling and extraction site is located close to the existing heating plant, opposite the Orly Sud terminal. The system is quite simple: The hot water (74°C) is extracted from Le Dogger and transported to a titanium heat exchanger located at the surface.

    The heat exchanger transfers the heat to the airport's hot-water circuit. The residual hot water is then returned, at a slightly lower temperature, to Le Dogger, far from its point of extraction, so as not to cool the reserve itself. Franck Goldnadel, director of Paris-Orly airport, is the head of this project in his capacity of developer.

    An ecological and economical solution

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    The use of geothermal energy, an idea initiated by Patrice Hardel, director of Paris-Orly airport at the time, allows the preservation of natural resources whilst at the same time reducing CO2 emissions resulting from energy production.

    In fact, in comparison with "all-gas" heating, the twinned 10-MW geothermal system will reduce Orly's gas consumption by 4,000 tonnes of oil equivalent (TOE) and will, in the medium term, avoid the emission of about 9,000 tonnes of CO2 per year.



    The geothermal process at Paris-Orly airport (in french)



    2020 vision

    Géothermie Orly

    The twinned system will start operations at the end of the year. Coupled with the Rungis waste incinerator, by 2020 the geothermal plant will supply almost half of the airport's heating water and almost half of the heating water for the future Coeur d'Orly business park. With geothermal energy, Aéroports de Paris is resolutely committed to renewable energy at the service of preserving our planet's natural resources.

    Dowload PDF new "Le journal de la Géothermie (June 2010, in french)