Mar 29 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - David Harrison The Roanoke Times, Va.

Workers with Richard Simmons Drilling dig narrow wells Friday near Northside High School. The wells will be part of a geothermal heating system.

David Carter operates a drill Friday morning in a project to provide a geothermal heating and cooling system for Northside High School. Officials say the system will help reduce fuel costs.

When Roanoke County opens a renovated Northside High School in 2009, there will be no whirring air conditioners, no clanking radiators and no heating oil or natural gas.

Instead, the school will rely on water and the earth's heat to keep itself warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

As part of its $28.3 million renovation project, Northside is installing a geothermal heating and cooling system -- a clean and energy-efficient system that has been around for more than 20 years. Although geothermal systems cost more to install than traditional heating systems, they allow local governments to recoup their costs with significantly lower heating bills.

Now, with energy prices creeping up, Roanoke County school officials decided it was worth the investment up front to save money later, joining hundreds of schools nationwide that have switched to geothermal, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

"It's the first school we've ever done this way, and it's an innovative thing," said Martin Misicko, director of operations for Roanoke County schools. "We're trying to think for the future."

Installing the system will cost about $1 million, an investment school officials hope will be paid off in three to five years.

"You're not burning oil or gas, it's better for the environment, you save a lot of energy, it's really economical," said Frank Moeller, project manager at Northside for Spectrum Design, ticking off the list of advantages of geothermal systems. "Once you pay it off, it's free energy for the life of the building."

Rockbridge County has installed geothermal systems in three elementary schools over the past seven years with good results, said Tom Drake, director of facilities for Rockbridge County Schools.

"The payback has been really quite surprising," he said. "Of course, with all the utility rates going up and up it only means quicker paybacks."

The schools are quieter now, too, without the noise of radiators and air conditioning units, Drake said.

Some localities are reluctant, however. In February, the Montgomery County School Board decided against installing geothermal systems in two new elementary schools, citing the cost.

Here's how it works: Water is pumped in a network of pipes through wells that reach roughly 400 feet underground, where the temperature is always between 52 and 58 degrees Fahrenheit, Moeller said. During winter, water is warmed to that temperature and is then piped inside the building, where a heat pump distributes air warmed by the water through the classrooms. The cooled water is then sent back into the ground to continue the cycle. In the summer, heat from the building is transferred to the water and then stored back in the earth.

Over the next few months, contractors will dig about 144 wells in a field between Northside High School and Northside Middle School next door. Each well will be roughly six inches in diameter.

Once that's done, a layer of sod and grass will mask the coils underneath.

"It's like a great big spaghetti going from well to well to well," Misicko said.

On Friday, Brent Jones and David Carter, contractors with Richard Simmons Drilling of Buchanan, started drilling the first wells with a rig that sent 25-foot metal rods into the ground.

Once a rod was in the ground, Jones and Carter placed another rod in the rig. The two rods connected and a motor at the top of the rig drove the rods farther into the ground.

The motor also sent air shooting inside the rods, which operated a hammer that pulverized the shale underground. As the rods slowly sank into the ground, wet, foul-smelling gray slush oozed out and the men shoveled it away.

Each rod takes about 15 minutes to go into the ground. It takes 16 rods to drill a 400-foot hole. Jones said a second rig would be on the site soon to help drill the wells. Not far away sat 60 coils of black pipe, wound up like massive licorice rolls.