International. An international team of researchers has come together to meet Europe's growing need for affordable and efficient geothermal solutions. Their work, which received EU support through the GEOTeCH project, focuses on providing renewable and cost-effective heating and cooling for homes and small buildings.
The GEOTeCH team has focused on this market because according to the International Energy Agency, buildings are responsible for 30% of global energy consumption and a substantial percentage of CO2 emissions. Heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems in particular make up about half of the energy used in buildings. And the sector is expanding, making reduced energy consumption and the use of renewable sources even more important.
Project partners have used advances made in geothermal heat pump technology to develop a new dual-source heat pump (DSHP) unit for heating, cooling and domestic hot water production.
The innovative DSHP harnesses heat sources from the air or soil, depending on operating and weather conditions. You can select the most favorable heat source or heat sink (for heating or cooling, respectively) in a way that allows it to function as an air-water or water-brine heat pump. Therefore, in winter it can provide hot water to heat buildings, using air or brine from the ground as a source of heat. Alternatively, in summer, use air or brine as a heat sink to provide cooling. The unit also guarantees domestic hot water throughout the year, which in summer can be generated using the system's condensation heat.
The pump is being demonstrated and monitored at four sites across Europe, one of which is UK project partner De Montfort University Leicester (DMU). Five wells have been drilled at DMU in locations where there was enough soft ground to drill at least 10 m. Heat exchangers have been installed in four of the wells. On the fifth hole, temperature sensors have been set up to record data on changes in soil temperature. Data on energy consumption and comfort levels are also being recorded at the demonstration site, which reproduces a small domestic building.
"Geothermal energy is the future; it's a clean and sustainable energy source," says Professor Greenough of DMU in a news item published on the University's website. "It does not produce greenhouse gases that can be harmful to the atmosphere. We want to know more about how heat pumps work to support their rapid use across Europe. Most people rely on gas, but there is a limited supply of fossil fuels, while geothermal heat pumps can make use of the virtually unlimited heat of the sun falling on the ground and warming the air around us. People mistakenly think that these heat pumps are expensive and that it takes a lot of space to install them, but that's not the case."
Through its research, GEOTeCH (Geothermal Technology for Conomic Cooling and Heating of €) is promoting a more widespread use of renewable heating and cooling systems in the future.
Source: Cordis Europe.
