Te Wharewaka, Wellington – a Case Study in Geothermal Heat Pump Applications Beside a Large Body of Water

Abstract

One of the challenges for geothermal heat pump installations is management of resource risk. There has been recent uptake of geothermal heat pump developments for commercial buildings in Christchurch where risks associated with underlying reservoirs are now well understood, and a range of parties are working to facilitate use. Reservoir risks in many other places are less understood and this may discourage similar investment. However many towns and cities have their commercial centres located by harbours, lakes or rivers for which characteristics are readily available. These offer major sources of heat, which is one of the dominant energy requirements of commercial buildings.
Te Wharewaka o P?neke Function Centre on Wellington’s waterfront provides a case study of a commercial facility built beside one of these large water bodies taking advantage of the heat available through geothermal heat pumps.
This paper looks at the design of this facility and performance since it was opened. Some possible improvements are considered before the paper goes on to briefly discuss the wider opportunities for similar commercial developments in other centres.
We are surrounded by oceans, lakes and rivers of energy for which we have been preoccupied with generating electricity from movement rather than directly extracting the heat energy inherent in these vast reservoirs.