A deep geothermal well was used to heat greenhouses in Boise in , and geysers were used to heat greenhouses in Iceland and Tuscany at about the same time. Steam and hot water from the geysers began to be used to heat homes in Iceland in By this time, Lord Kelvin had already invented the heat pump in , and Heinrich Zoelly had patented the idea of using it to draw heat from the ground in The earliest one was probably Robert C.

Webber's home-made 2. Donald Kroeker designed the first commercial geothermal heat pump to heat the Commonwealth Building Portland, Oregon and demonstrated it in The development of polybutylene pipe greatly augmented the heat pump's economic viability.

Geothermal energy is a type of renewable energy that encourages conservation of natural resources. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency , geo-exchange systems save homeowners 30—70 percent in heating costs, and 20—50 percent in cooling costs, compared to conventional systems.

In addition to being highly reliable they are built to last for decades. Some utilities, such as Kansas City Power and Light , offer special, lower winter rates for geothermal customers, offering even more savings.

In geothermal heating projects the underground is penetrated by trenches or drillholes. As with all underground work, projects may cause problems if the geology of the area is poorly understood. In the spring of an exploratory geothermal drilling operation was conducted to provide geothermal heat to the town hall of Staufen im Breisgau.

After initially sinking a few millimeters, a process called subsidence , [30] the city center has started to rise gradually [31] causing considerable damage to buildings in the city center, affecting numerous historic houses including the town hall.

It is hypothesized that the drilling perforated an anhydrite layer bringing high-pressure groundwater to come into contact with the anhydrite, which then began to expand. Currently no end to the rising process is in sight. A geochemical process called anhydrite swelling has been confirmed as the cause of these uplifts.

This is a transformation of the mineral anhydrite anhydrous calcium sulphate into gypsum hydrous calcium sulphate. A pre-condition for this transformation is that the anhydrite is in contact with water, which is then stored in its crystalline structure.

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Download as PDF Printable version. Use of geothermal energy for heating. This article is about direct uses of geothermal heat. For electricity generation, see geothermal power. For 'geothermal' heat pump, see ground source heat pump. Energy conservation. Arcology Building insulation Cogeneration Eco hotel Efficient energy use Energy storage Environmental planning Environmental technology Fossil fuel phase-out Green building Green building and wood Green retrofit Heat pump List of low-energy building techniques Low-energy house Microgeneration Sustainable architecture Sustainable city Sustainable habitat Thermal energy storage Tropical green building Zero-energy building Zero heating building.

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Main article: Ground-coupled heat exchanger. Main article: Geothermal heat pump. Hohmeyer; T. Trittin eds. Proceedings of the IPCC Scoping Meeting on Renewable Energy Sources.

Luebeck, Germany. Archived from the original PDF on June , "Characteristics, Development and utilization of geothermal resources" PDF , Geo-Heat Centre Quarterly Bulletin , Klamath Falls, Oregon: Oregon Institute of Technology, vol.

Encyclopedia of Sustainability and Technology : 1— doi : ISBN Energy education by Prof. Jason Donev and students, University of Calgary. Retrieved University of Rochester. geothermal resources can be harnessed for power production and heating and cooling without importing fuel.

Small footprint —Geothermal power plants and geothermal heat pumps are compact. GHPs can be retrofitted or integrated in new buildings. Clean —Modern geothermal power plants emit no greenhouse gasses and have life cycle emissions four times lower than solar PV, and six to 20 times lower than natural gas.

See how we can generate clean, renewable energy from hot water sources deep beneath the Earth's surface. The video highlights the basic principles at work in geothermal energy production and illustrates three different ways the earth's heat can be converted into electricity.

The GeoVision analysis indicates potential for up to 60 gigawatts of electricity-generating capacity, more than 17, district heating systems, and up to 28 million geothermal heat pumps by If we realize those maximum projections across sectors, it would be the emissions reduction equivalent of taking 26 million cars off U.

roads every year. Technical Resources. Permitting for Geothermal Power Development Projects. The U. Dandelion engineers use closed-loop systems. They see them as the most efficient and safest option for homeowners.

When a Dandelion system is installed, closed-loop pipes with a water solution are buried in the ground beneath your home. In the wintertime, this degree solution is warmer than the outside air. This allows you to adjust the air in your home to whatever temperature you desire.

Your geothermal system makes it easy to get comfortable at home. Home geothermal systems create zero carbon emissions. Over the course of a year, using one Dandelion Energy system reduces enough carbon emissions to equal removing two cars from the road.

These wonders of engineering are also safer for your home than traditional heating and cooling systems. While the price of electricity, oil, or natural gas fluctuates, the cost of operating a geothermal system will stay pretty much the same.

The electricity costs of a geothermal system are low and seldom vary from month to month. However, the engineers at Dandelion, a spinoff from a Google X project , set out to drive those costs down.

Thanks to their ingenuity, geothermal systems are now affordable to more homeowners. Instead of using large drill rigs like those used to bore artesian wells, Dandelion began experimenting with smaller, more efficient drills that make one or two deep holes just a few inches wide.

The company then installs U-shaped pipes into these holes. This innovation takes up less space and creates less of a disturbance in the back yards of Dandelion customers. Using the new equipment, installation of the ground loop pipes can be completed in days instead of a weeks, saving customers time and money.

Dandelion has a no-money-down financing plan allowing homeowners to install a geothermal system with no upfront cost.

Or when summer brings degree weather, the earth beneath your house keeps steady at 55 degrees. You have probably experienced this phenomenon at home without even realizing it. In the winter, even an unheated basement stays relatively warm because of that consistent degree insulation from the surrounding earth.

Geothermal systems, such as the Dandelion Energy system, take advantage of this naturally occurring constant. They harness the steady temperature surrounding any home to heat or cool it as needed. They use the sustained temperature of the ground to heat or cool your home.

Though many geothermal systems are similar, there are differences between them. Some used a closed or open loop system, pond loops, or slinky coil ground loops. There are pros and cons to the various loop configurations for geothermal home heating. Dandelion engineers use closed-loop systems.

They see them as the most efficient and safest option for homeowners. When a Dandelion system is installed, closed-loop pipes with a water solution are buried in the ground beneath your home.

In the wintertime, this degree solution is warmer than the outside air. This allows you to adjust the air in your home to whatever temperature you desire.

Your geothermal system makes it easy to get comfortable at home. Home geothermal systems create zero carbon emissions. Over the course of a year, using one Dandelion Energy system reduces enough carbon emissions to equal removing two cars from the road.

These wonders of engineering are also safer for your home than traditional heating and cooling systems. While the price of electricity, oil, or natural gas fluctuates, the cost of operating a geothermal system will stay pretty much the same.

The electricity costs of a geothermal system are low and seldom vary from month to month. However, the engineers at Dandelion, a spinoff from a Google X project , set out to drive those costs down.

Thanks to their ingenuity, geothermal systems are now affordable to more homeowners. Instead of using large drill rigs like those used to bore artesian wells, Dandelion began experimenting with smaller, more efficient drills that make one or two deep holes just a few inches wide. The company then installs U-shaped pipes into these holes.

This innovation takes up less space and creates less of a disturbance in the back yards of Dandelion customers. Using the new equipment, installation of the ground loop pipes can be completed in days instead of a weeks, saving customers time and money.

Dandelion has a no-money-down financing plan allowing homeowners to install a geothermal system with no upfront cost. Image: HEET. In addition to single-family homes and apartments, geothermal heat pumps have been successfully installed at universities , hospitals , commercial office parks , and neighborhoods.

They are particularly effective in network systems that connect multiple buildings through shared piping and which use energy from the ground, wastewater, and ponds, among other sources.

These network systems can achieve more than percent efficiency , meaning for every unit of energy that goes in, five go out. These larger systems require infrastructure to be installed and maintained, fostering local jobs and growing the clean energy economy.

They can transition whole communities onto geothermal at a time, creating economies of scale that bring energy costs down for all participants. For example, a Whisper Valley, Texas, neighborhood connected homes to a geothermal heat pump system, which helps to keep their homes cool during extremely hot summer days.

Geothermal heat pumps are also particularly effective in cold climates because they maintain high efficiency and high output capacity even during winter months in northern states like Minnesota.

For example, an ice arena in Woodbury, MN, leveraged utility incentives and an energy efficiency block grant to install a geothermal system that keeps the ice cold and the fan section warm. To look at the impact geothermal heat pumps can have on reducing climate pollution in colder climates, RMI compared appliance emissions across three Midwest utility territories.

In this region, geothermal heat pumps significantly reduce emissions compared with fossil fuel appliances, producing approximately 85 percent fewer emissions than a gas furnace and 90 percent fewer emissions than a propane furnace through With on-site renewables, such as solar, or a percent clean grid, geothermal heat pumps can enable buildings to reach zero operational emissions.

As more renewables come onto the grid, homes and buildings powered by heat pumps will continue to have smaller and smaller carbon footprints. Note: These results are based on analysis of residential heating technologies across the Midwest developed by 5 Lakes Energy over the course of a full year.

Geothermal heat pumps use about 80 percent less energy annually than industry-standard fossil fuel furnaces to heat homes in the Midwest. They use four times less electricity on the most extreme cold days than air-source heat pumps and can support limiting peak demand on the utility system during cold snaps or heat waves.

Although geothermal heat pumps are typically more expensive for home and building owners to install, the Inflation Reduction Act has created tax credits, grants, and rebates that will significantly help drive down upfront costs. And the Investment Tax Credit can help commercial buildings, like schools, reduce upfront costs by 30—50 percent for a geothermal heat pump.

Effective implementation of the new federal funding can help boost the geothermal market and reduce upfront costs even further. To facilitate wider adoption of geothermal heat pump technology, the operational costs must be affordable as well.

RMI analysis found that the cost to operate a geothermal heat pump is already low in the Midwest compared with other heating sources. With electric heating rates, geothermal heat pumps could operate at less than half the cost of natural gas and propane furnaces in this region.

Higher upfront costs of geothermal can be alleviated in dense urban and suburban areas where network systems allow participants to benefit from lower utility bills while spreading out the upfront costs, so individuals pay less.

Alongside geothermal heat pumps, air-source heat pumps are cost-competitive, emissions-reducing, electric alternatives to fossil fuel furnaces. To support the geothermal heat pump market, states can take actions in the following ways:.

In a nutshell, geothermal heat pumps and network geothermal systems are a win today for households, businesses, and communities across the United States. They deliver energy savings and comfort, reduce climate-warming pollution, and create jobs.

Those benefits will only increase as the electric grid gets greener and more people require clean heating and cooling solutions.

Geothermal heat pumps are a part of the solution to ensure every building is healthy, affordable, and decarbonized.