"The Rhine is the second-longest river in Western Europe, discharging about 100,000 cubic feet of water a second into the North Sea. It snakes through the Swiss Alps and makes up large sections of Germany's western border with France, spreading out across a major delta in the Netherlands before emptying into the ocean. It's also an enormous, largely untapped resource for clean power."
"Fittingly, the enormous pumps being built by MVV are taking over the site of a coal power plant in Mannheim, Germany, a symbolic shift towards renewable and less polluting technologies. Conveniently, MVV officials noted that the site is already hooked up to the grid and even the local district heating network. Best of all, the necessary compressor technology has already been largely developed by the oil and gas industry, giving the transition to enormous centralized heat pumps a considerable leg u"
The Rhine carries vast volumes of water and represents a large potential source of thermal energy for clean power. MVV Environment is building two massive heat pumps that will draw water from the Rhine to supply heat for roughly 40,000 homes via hot-water or steam district heating networks. Heat pumps move heat using compressors, refrigerants, coils, and fans, operating more efficiently than gas boilers or electric elements. District heating could meet a substantial share of European heating demand, and existing compressor technology from oil and gas eases the transition at former coal sites.
Read at Futurism
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