Geothermal Heat Pumps and Geothermal District Heating Systems - The German Experience

Abstract

Ground source heat pumps play a key role in geothermal development in Central and Northern Europe. With borehole heat exchangers as heat source, they offer geothermal heating at virtually any location. In the vast majority of plants no space cooling is included, leaving ground source heat pumps with some economic constraints. In areas with deep, hot aquifers, hydrogeothermal doublets can be found, serving district heating networks. The approach of a deep borehole heat exchanger (in excess of 2 km depth) is not very economic. However, some new projects of this type are in planning stadium for areas where no permeability is expected in the target depth.