Innovation - Ground source energy - heat pumps
So how does geothermal energy work? Like many good ideas, it's simple to understand. A heat pump takes the heat from a refrigerant fluid (or water) that is in contact with the ground, extracts the heat from this source and transfers it to a heat sink where it can then be circulated through a heating system. This process cools the refrigerant fluid, which is then circulated back through the ground again where it absorbs more heat before being passed through the heat pump again. The process can be used to heat cold buildings and it can be reversed to provide cooling in hot weather.
You don't need to live in the tropics to make use of the concept. The Department of Trade and Industry says that there are more than 1,500 large industrial sites in the UK where heat-pump systems could be installed, with an average size of 800 kilowatts of thermal power.
Ground-source heating systems are unobtrusive and most of the infrastructure can be hidden beneath the ground. Heat pumps can be housed within existing buildings or landscaped into your existing architecture.
Geothermal power requires very little space. There's no need to dam rivers or chop down forests. There are no mineshafts, tunnels, open pits, slag heaps or oil spills. Geothermal plants are quiet, clean and unobtrusive, which means that they can be used in environmentally sensitive environments.
