The Large Hadron Collider will soon help heat nearby homes

[Judi Lynn]

Michael Irving
an hour ago

Particle accelerators like CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have made some groundbreaking discoveries for physics, like measuring the spectrum of antimatter or discovering the Higgs boson – but it's hard to tell how exactly that benefits the average Joe/Jill. Now CERN has announced that the LHC will soon be more directly beneficial to local communities, by diverting some of the waste heat from the collider to help heat thousands of nearby homes.

The Large Hadron Collider is the largest machine in the world and needs to operate at temperatures colder than outer space. Needless to say, it produces a huge amount of waste heat. Normally vented away, this excess energy could be an untapped gold mine.

"At CERN, many systems and installations (cryogenics, electronics, ventilation, etc.) are cooled using water: cold water is injected into the cooling circuit and the hot water produced is then collected and cooled by cooling towers, before being reinjected into the circuit," says Serge Claudet, CERN's energy coordinator. "The hot water leaving the circuit can reach a temperature of 30° C (86° F), which is very useful in the context of energy recovery."

So CERN is planning to direct some of that energy towards a new urban development zone – or in French, zone d'aménagement concerté (ZAC). This zone, currently under construction in the nearby region of Ferney-Voltaire, will have a built-in geothermal energy system. Heat from industrial buildings, air conditioning systems and even solar energy from rooftops will be collected and stored in an underground network of water pipes. When needed, this energy can be transferred back to the surface to heat homes and other buildings.

More:
https://newatlas.com/cern-large-hadron-collider-heat-homes/60724/

[BlueMTexpat]

1. Voltaire must be smiling from wherever he is!

About Ferney-Voltaire:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferney-Voltaire

...
Ferney was first noted in 14th-century Burgundian registers as "Fernex." Four centuries later, however, Voltaire changed the "x" to a "y" due to the excessive number of towns in the region with names ending in "x," such as Maconnex, Saconnex, Gex, Versonnex, Ornex.

During Voltaire's reign period at Ferney in the second part of the 18th century, the town saw rapid expansion. Today Ferney is a peaceful town with a Saturday market and a large international community, due to the proximity of CERN and the United Nations Office at Geneva. Ferney is growing very quickly. It is also home to the Lycée International. Voltaire still presides over Ferney with his statue in the center of town.

From 1759 to 1778 Ferney was home to French writer and philosopher Voltaire, sometimes referred to as "the patriarch of Ferney."[2] His influence on the town was profound. He built the local church and founded cottage industries that produced some of the finest potters and watchmakers of modern France. After the French Revolution, the town was renamed "Ferney-Voltaire" in his honor.

In 1759, after having lived in Geneva less than two years, Voltaire purchased the estate of Ferney in France, near the Swiss border. A prime reason for his leaving Geneva was that theatre was forbidden in that Calvinist city, so he had decided to become the enlightened "patriarch" of the little village of Ferney, setting up potteries, a watchmaking industry and, of course, theaters, attracting rich people from Geneva to watch his plays.

During Voltaire's residence, the population of Ferney increased to more than 1,000. Voltaire lived there for the last 20 years of his life before returning to Paris, where he died in 1778.
...

Voltaire's chateau: https://en.leman-sans-frontiere.org/sightseeing-around-lake-geneva-france-switzerland/land-voltaire-ferney-voltaire

Up until 2007, I regularly used to take my visitors to the Saturday market there, where they could also view the statue of Voltaire. Now I live closer to Divonne-les-Bains, which has a wonderful Sunday market, so proximity triumphs.

[Judi Lynn]

2. Tremendous! Thank you, so much, for offering this great information.

Sounds like a wonderful place to live, no doubt about that.

[BlueMTexpat]

3. I really enjoy your posts.

They are always informative and usually transcend the merely political.

Thank you so much for doing what you do!