Alternative Heating Systems for Northern Remote Communities: Error Analysis of Shallow Geothermal Potential in Kuujjuaq, Nunavik, Canada

Abstract

Presently, low efficiency and environmentally adverse diesel furnaces are used to meet residential heating demand in Nunavik, a subarctic remote region covering the northern third of Québec, Canada. Shallow geothermal energy, specifically through the adoption of ground-coupled heat pump technology, was confirmed as a viable building heating alternative with great potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and overall costs in a previous study. The G.POT method (Casasso & Sethi, 2016) was also successfully applied to estimate the shallow geothermal potential in Kuujjuaq, the largest village in Nunavik. However, an analysis of the various sources of error and their effect on the results of the shallow geothermal potential has not been studied. The objective of this work was to improve the understanding of the geothermal heat pump potential of this region with such error calculation applied to the G.POT method. The results show that the total error is approximately 16%, depending on the borehole length. The largest errors were found in the thermal properties of the quaternary sediments overlying the bedrock. The study allowed to identify where the error can be reduced and helped to understand the quality of the geothermal potential assessment.