A GEOTHERMAL HOTHOUSE
Tropical fruit in Nebraska? Geothermal makes it possible … and cheap
Kate Yoder, 1 February 2016 (Grist)
“…Russ Finch, a mail-carrier-turned-farmer, is growing these tropical fruits in Alliance, Nebraska…[His] “Greenhouse in the Snow” uses the Earth’s heat to keep the temperature at a balmy 28 degrees…Perforated plastic tubes make a circuit underground outside the greenhouse in a trench 8-feet deep where Finch says the temperature remains a steady 52 degrees year-round. A fan moves air through the tubes and into the greenhouse when it gets too hot or cold…There are no propane or electric heaters, just a small motor that runs the small fan. That means the greenhouse uses very little energy, keeping costs down to about $1 a day, all but cutting out the fossil fuels needed to control the climate inside…[The construction cost was] $22,000. But with disease threatening Florida’s oranges and an ongoing drought in California, maybe it’s not such a bad idea to grow citrus in America’s breadbasket, where…water and land are relatively cheap and abundant…” click here for more
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