Geothermal: in Your Community
Public buildings
Ground-source heat pumps are especially suitable for buildings that have a demand for heating and cooling and have long hours of usage, such as hotels and hospitals. A heat-pump system becomes more efficient with use when compared with a conventional fossil-fuel system.
Visual impact
The technology used in ground-source heating systems has very low visual impact and most of the infrastructure can be hidden beneath the ground. Heat pumps can be housed within existing buildings.
Viability
Not every area is suitable for geothermal energy, and the UK has a far more limited resource compared with other countries such as Iceland or New Zealand. Heat pumps require access to sufficient areas of ground surrounding the development or to suitable, proximal bodies of water and groundwater. Lakes, canals and tidal mudflats are potential sources of heat for heat pumps. Areas underlain by aquifers are particularly suited to large ground-source heat schemes.
Gas emissions
Geothermal fluids contain dissolved gases. When these gases are brought to the surface, a reduction in pressure can allow them to be released from the solution. The gases typically contained in geothermal fluids are carbon dioxide (CO2) and hydrogen sulphide (H2S). Geothermal plants do not produce any oxides of nitrogen (NOx) or sulphur dioxide (SO2). They also produce much less carbon dioxide than gas, coal or oil-fired plants.
Land use
Geothermal power plants require relatively little space. Rivers do not need to be dammed and forests do not need to be cut down. Exploitation of geothermal energy does not create any mineshafts, tunnels, open pits, waste heaps or oil spills. Geothermal plants can sit among potentially sensitive developments such as farmland and forests and can share land with cattle and local wildlife.
Noise
Heat-pump installations are unobtrusive and noise- and pollution-free. If the compressor is driven by fossil fuel-generated electricity, they will release some carbon dioxide. However, they have lower emissions than conventional gas or oil boilers and the power required to drive the heat pump could be sourced from renewable technologies.