Abstract
In recent years, some spectacular cases of damage occurred with vertical ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems in Germany. Broad media coverage attracted enormous public attention, with reports about land subsidence and ground uplifts causing severe damage to buildings. Consequently, sales of vertical GSHP systems have declined. The current study develops conceptual models illustrating the causes and effects of damage in relation to geological and hydrogeological settings. Our investigations revealed nine cases of serious damage in Germany, causing financial losses of more than 100 million Euros. In most cases, connection of aquifers by leaky annular space grouting was the main cause of damage. Guidelines to regulate the installation of vertical GSHP systems have been introduced successfully in all federal states. However, further risk minimisation strategies must be developed to restore the public’s confidence in GSHP technology. Quality assurance and quality control measures should include in particular the optimisation of backfilling materials and increasing use of monitoring systems.
Highlights
The 195 countries participating in 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris agreed on keeping the increase in global average temperature below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels
Some spectacular cases of damage occurred with vertical ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems in Germany
Guidelines to regulate the installation of vertical GSHP systems have been introduced successfully in all federal states
Summary
The 195 countries participating in 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) in Paris agreed on keeping the increase in global average temperature below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels. Shallow geothermal energy plays an important role in increasing the share of renewable energy sources in the energy mix and helps significantly reduce CO2 emissions (Bayer et al 2012; Blum et al 2010; Sivasakthivel et al 2012). After a rapid increase of newly installed systems at the beginning of the millennium, sales figures have been declining in Germany since 2008 (Fig. 1). The reasons are stricter approval procedures, declining oil and gas prices, and increasing investment costs (Blum et al 2011; Grimm et al 2014; Rumohr 2008). Temporal correlation between declining sales figures and the disclosure of failure events, indicates an increasing uncertainty of the population with respect to the GSHP technology
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