Abstract
Groundwater can serve as an environmentally friendly and renewable energy source when utilized in a groundwater heat pump system. Installation of such systems has been increasing worldwide in recent years. Performance of a groundwater heat pump system depends on local hydrogeological and thermo geological conditions. It is important that aquifer properties be determined to be representative of the site when designing a system in order to maximize efficiency, reduce installation costs, and minimize any environmental impacts. Factors that need to be considered are the groundwater temperature profile to the depth at which the temperature becomes relatively stable; hydraulic and thermal conductivities; diffusivity of the soil and rock layers; groundwater levels; and groundwater quality. Selection of groundwater and heat pump coupling techniques relies on, to a large extent, an accurate conceptual site scale model of groundwater conditions and understanding of environmental and legal constraints.
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Acknowledgments
This research was financially supported by China National Scientific and Technical Support Program (Grant Nos. 2012BAB12B03-03 and 201105060-06), China National Natural Science Foundation (Grant Nos. 51174289 and 41102180), Innovation Research Team Program of Ministry of Education (IRT1085), National Geological Survey Program (shui[2012]-01-035-036), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (2010YD 02) and State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining.
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Wu, Q., Xu, S., Zhou, W. et al. Hydrogeology and design of groundwater heat pump systems. Environ Earth Sci 73, 3683–3695 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3654-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3654-2