Abstract
The use of shallow geothermal energy increasingly receives attention as a suitable alternative to fossil fuel-based space heating and cooling, warm water provision, as well as for seasonal heat storage throughout Europe. With the advent of shallow geothermal energy use on large scales, a vivid discussion of potential ecological and economic impacts has arisen but actual field data are scarce. An intensive groundwater temperature-monitoring program over a period of 3 years with consecutive measurements was, therefore, initiated at a residential neighborhood in the city of Cologne, Germany, under intense shallow geothermal use. The aim of the monitoring program was to overcome the existing data scarcity by pinpointing the effects of the intensive thermal use of the subsurface on groundwater temperatures and to foster understanding of urban groundwater temperature evolution. Results show that even though energy demands of the individual houses and energy extraction rates of the shallow geothermal systems were comparably small in this case, the accumulation of shallow geothermal users had a measurable impact on overall groundwater temperatures.
Highlights
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
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)
Ecological and economic aspects will at the end determine the uptake of shallow geothermal energy over conventional fossil fuel-based heating systems to successfully bring forward the decarbonization of the building sector
Summary
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). 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 Vienken et al Geotherm Energy (2019) 7:8 elevated geothermal gradient (e.g., Sanner et al 2003; Hähnlein et al 2010 and references therein). Further information about shallow geothermal energy use is provided amongst others by Sanner et al (2003) and Lund et al (2004)
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