Geothermal (Ground Source) Heat Pumps
Geothermal heat pumps (GHPs), often called ground-source heat pumps, have been proven capable of producing large reductions in energy use and peak demand in buildings.If the federal government set a goal for the U.S. buildings sector to use no more nonrenewable primary energy in 2030 than it did in 2008, based on previous analyses, it is estimated that 35 percent to 40 percent of this goal could be achieved through aggressive deployment of GHPs. In addition, $33 billion to $38 billion annually in reduced utility bills (at 2006 rates) could be achieved through aggressive deployment of GHPs.
The key barriers to rapid growth of the GHP industry, in order of priority:
1. High first cost of GHP systems to consumers.
2. Lack of consumer knowledge and/or trust or confidence in GHP system benefits.
3. Lack of policymaker and regulator knowledge of and/or trust or confidence in GHP system benefits.
4. Limitations of GHP design and business planning infrastructure.
5. Limitations of GHP installation infrastructure.
6. Lack of new technologies and techniques to improve GHP system cost and performance.
The following actions would address the barriers and facilitate rapid growth of the GHP industry:
1. Assemble independent, statistically valid, hard data on the costs and benefits of GHPs.
2. Independently assess the national benefits of aggressive GHP deployment.
3. Streamline and deploy nationwide programs to provide GHP infrastructure.
4. Develop and deploy programs to provide universal access to GHP infrastructure.
5. Develop the data, analysis and tools to enable lowest life-cycle-cost GHP infrastructure.
6. Expand geographic areas where high-quality GHP design infrastructure exists.
7. Expand geographic areas where high-quality GHP installation infrastructure exists.
