SUSTAINABILITY ASPECTS OF GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMPS

For geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) the issue of sustainability concerns the long-term production stability of the various heat sources. In the horizontal systems the heat exchanger pipes are buried at shallow depth; for combined heating/cooling by GHPs the heat balance (in/out) is given by the system design itself. In the case of groundwater-coupled GHPs the resupply of fluid is secured by the hydrologic cycle.