Renewable Energy – Solutions for application in the communal energy infrastructure

38 | EXAMPLE PROJECTS
Russia: School cuts heating costs to a quarter with geothermal energy
The school in Zhitkovo can reduce heating costs by around 75 per cent with the help of heat pumps.
The secondary school inZhitkovo in Leningrad Oblast
has been heated with geothermal heat pumps since the
end of 2020. Previously, an electric convection heating
system provided heat in the brick building from 1965
with 1,150 square metres of heated room space. The
energy costs were 3 to 3.5 million roubles annually. According
to calculations, the new heating system should
reduce costs by 75 per cent. The investment in the new
heating system will thus pay for itself in just six years.
Three heat pumps are installed in the new boiler room,
which together can provide 91 kilowatts of heating
power. In addition, there is an electric boiler with 21
kilowatts of power and a 1,000-litre buffer tank. The
electrically driven heat pumps extract energy from
14 geothermal probes that reach 145 metres into the
ground. The temperatures in the ground are +5 to
+10°C, even in winter. In the building, the heat is
distributed via new low-temperature radiators with
thermostatic valves.
The “Centre for Energy Saving and the Improvement
of Energy Efficiency of the Leningrad Administrative
District” included the school in the list of “demonstration
sites with high energy efficiency”. Students from
the educational institutions of the Leningrad Administrative
District visit the building to learn about energyefficient
technologies. In addition, representatives of
interested companies and organisations can learn about
the technologies used in order to implement further
successful projects.
The three heat pumps extract energy from the ground at a
depth of 145 metres.