The Socioeconomic and Environmental Assessment of Using Geothermal Heat Pumps in China

Abstract

As China’s rapid urbanization continues, and the growing demand for carbon emission reduction increases, integration of renewable energy technologies with buildings has become an efficient solution. Geothermal heat pumps (GHP) are being widely applied in China due to being both safe and clean. In this paper, GHP is regarded as an independent industry sector, and the economic relationship with other industries and environmental influence was also studied in greater depth. The life cycle inventory was used to calculate the raw material input and energy consumption of GHP Sector at each stage. A new Input-Output (I–O) table was developed based on actual data on GHP life cycle inventory analysis. Taking a project in a northern Chinese city as an example, this study calculated the linkage and spread relationship between the GHP sector and other industries in China and quantized and calculated the energy consumption and carbon emission of GHP during the whole life cycle. It is shown that the GHP sector has a high industrial consumption for the power supply sector, mining and processing of metal ores sector, manufacture of chemical products sector, and it has a significant pulling effect on the economy. The life-cycle energy of the GHP system was 47.59 TJ, and the CO2 emission was 11877 tons. If the GHP is further widely used, it will have greater emission reduction potential.