In Nova Scotia, a unique geothermal project will let locals crank the A/C without cranking the CO2. According to Halifax News Net, the system acts like a giant battery that will store cold energy in the winter and use it to cool five municipal buildings in the summer.

Called the Dartmouth underground thermal energy storage system (UTES), it works by pumping chilly seawater into a large rock mass the size of a 40-story building. Eighty-five, 500 foot deep holes drilled into the earth provide access to the underground Energizer. The flow is then reversed, with rock-chilled salt water pumped into nearby buildings in need of some summer relief.

The Alderney 5 Energy Project, located in the city of Dartmouth (Gmap it), will cost $3.6 million (Canadian). Officials expect the project, the largest geothermal facility in Canada, to be completed by as early as December, just in time to start socking away some of that Atlantic cold.

Besides cutting 900 tonnes of CO2 per year, the project is expected to trim over $1 million in energy and equipment costs from the local budget.

Interestingly, visitors will have the opportunity to see the guts of the system through a glass casing and learn about it from an "interpretive panel". I wonder if this could be the start of a new kind of eco-tourism, to sightsee the world's biggest and best clean energy destinations from concentrating solar plants to offshore wind farms and America's greenest homes. But if you do, try to travel by train, bus or Prius.

Source: Halifax News Net