Monitoring the impact of intensive shallow geothermal energy use on groundwater temperatures in a residential neighborhood

Abstract

Households accounted for 25.4% of the final energy consumption in the EU 28 in 2016 of which almost 80% of that energy was used for space heating and warm water provision (see Eurostat 2018). At the same time, only 16% of the final energy consumption of households was derived from renewables, including the renewable part of waste (see Eurostat 2018). Hence, strengthening the share of renewables for space heating and warm water provision is an important piece of the puzzle for the decarbonization of the building sector that plays an important role in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions (Lucon et al. 2014). The use of shallow geothermal energy has increasingly received attention as suitable alternative to fossil fuel-based space heating and cooling, warm water provision, as well as for seasonal heat storage over the last 20 years, e.g., see Sanner (2017) for the development of the German ground source heat pump market. This is because ground source heat pump technology can readily be used to provide sufficient space heating during winter periods even at locations that are not favored by an

Sustainability of Shallow Geothermal Energy for Building Air-Conditioning

“…Therefore, environmental studies focused on shallow to medium-depth geothermal heating and cooling are desirable to obtain a complete picture of exploiting the geothermal energy for building air-conditioning. Moreover, to properly assess the sustainability of geothermal systems used for building air-conditioning, the evaluation should focus on a broader range of environmental indicators, since potential interactions with other environmental spheres-such as underground and groundwater-may occur and be quantifiable ( [52,53]).…”

Effects of temperature, test duration and heat flux in thermal conductivity measurements under transient conditions in dry and fully saturated states

“…An initial test series w reconstituted sand sample w 15.35 kN/m 3 ll the variables affect the conductivity. It is clearly with increasing ambient n. It is also noted that it ter a limited period of time.…”

“…Shallow geothermal energy systems (SGES), which are commonly known as Ground Source Heat Pump systems (GSHP), use the nearly steady temperature of the ground surface layers as an energy source and/or an energy sink in both heating and cooling modes [2]. Such systems have shown to be sustainable alternatives for buildings acclimatization when compared with conventional airconditioning systems [3].…”

Thermal modeling of a Swiss urban aquifer and implications for geothermal heat pump systems

“…SGS advantages and the progressive electrification of the building conditioning sector explain why these systems are increasingly being installed all across the world. The phenomenon of high SGS density due to large deployment, especially in urban areas, is currently being observed in different locations across Europe (García-Gil et al 2014;Attard et al 2020;Vienken et al 2019;Bakr et al 2013). The topic is growing in importance, since the correct balance between the management of both the shallow geothermal resource and groundwater quantity/quality is becoming fundamental to ensure SGS sustainable operation in the long-term (García-Gil et al 2020a).…”