UrbanGeo

Bringing geothermal energy to office workers with deep casing drilling

Thanks to Wassaras water-powered DTH hammer, drilling passed without incident through the different formation layers.

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Location

Lund, Sweden

Contractor

Skånska Energi

Type of product

W120 Hammer

The complicated drilling project was successfully carried out in 2013, despite the fact that the surrounding downtown buildings were at risk if the formation was pressurised. Thanks to Wassaras water-powered DTH hammer, drilling passed without incident through the different formation layers.

Geothermal energy, extracted from forty 170 m (573 ft.) deep boreholes, is being used to heat and cool the newly constructed 11 000 m3 municipal office in the city of Lund in southern Sweden. The formation includes both soft and hard layers of rock.

The Kristallen building

The Kristallen municipal office in Lund, Sweden, is an extremely energy efficient building. It is heated and cooled by geothermal energy extracted from 40 boreholes. The heat pump supplies the 11 000 m3 building with all the heating energy required, neither boilers nor district heating are necessary.

In total, the system provides the building with about 0.5 MW of heating effect and 1 MW of cooling.

Safe and secure drilling

According to Mr. Tomas Kullgren, the project Drilling Supervisor at Skånska Energi;

“This drilling project included Ø 168 mm (6.8”) casing, some 80 m (270 ft.) down to rock and then drilling with a Ø 140 mm (5½”) bit the remaining length of the 170 m (573 ft.) stretch. Wassaras water-powered hammer handled the different layers very well. The clay layers, for example, cannot be penetrated with air-powered DTH hammers. All in all the drilling has gone according to plan, in time and on budget.”

Equipment used