News Archive
Intermediate European project conference - Update
Jun. 29, 2011 – The updated final programme of the Ground-Med Intermediate European project conference taking place on 6-7 October 2011 in Marseille, France is now available. As there will be a limited number of participants on a first come – first served basis, please make a pre-registration before 15 July 2011. » read more
Utilisation of ground heat for office buildings
Jun. 17, 2011 – The new technical book from BINE entitled "Erdwärme für Bürogebäude nutzen" (Utilising ground heat for office buildings) describes concepts and technics of ground source systems for heating and cooling purposes and presents results of monitored demonstration projects. » read more
IEA issues heating and cooling technology roadmap
May. 24, 2011 – A new International Energy Agency (IEA) roadmap for heating and cooling systems underlines the importance of heat pumps in the transformation of the buildings sector towards a low carbon future, envisaging 3,500 million installed heat pumps in the residential sector worldwide by 2050. Further R&D is required to reduce costs and develop new products, while heat pump systems integrated with thermal energy storage will become the norm. » read more
Test operation of a new spiral heat exchanger for GSHP
May. 16, 2011 – A new kind of spiral heat exchangers for ground source heat pumps (GSHP) has been developed by the Karlsruhe Insitute of Technology (KIT), Germany. The duration of the EMERGE project, funded by the German utility EnBW, was February 2009 to July 2010. Meanwhile, the so called "Erdwärmekorb" (ground heat basket) is operated in a test phase and researchers of KIT are planning to monitor the system in 2011. » read more
CGC engages in national industry road mapping exercise
May. 11, 2011 – The Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (CGC) announced that it has engaged the Canadian ground source heat pump (GSHP) industry in a national road mapping exercise. The roadmap will allow stakeholders to assess the state of the industry, to measure industry progress, and to evaluate capacity while identifying new areas for industry development. The exercise will also help CGC develop and implement future market transformation processes. » read more
Annual report 2010 of IEA HPP published
May. 06, 2011 – The IEA Heat Pump Programme Annual Report for 2010 describes the work of the programme during last year including Chairman's statement, information about the Annexes, programme achievments and the highlights of 2010. The objectives of Annex 37 as well as Annex 39 are closely related to those of the GROUND-Med project. » read more
Industry advisory note - Ethanol handling
Apr. 19, 2011 – Due to a recent industry accident, a HRAI / CGC industry task group was formed to create a follow up membership alert regarding best practices and safe handling of Ethanol and Ethanol-Water mixtures used in geothermal loops. This
document is designed to accompany the ethanol member alert that HRAI sent out in early September of last year and provides further direction to industry practitioners who are involved or working directly with ethanol and ethanol blends.
The task group has also developed a more comprehensive document “Safe Operating Procedure for Handling Ethanol”. » read more
New German funding guidelines for renewable energies
Apr. 11, 2011 – In March 2011, the German government revised its subsidies for renewable energies, amending inter alia the incentive scheme for heat pumps. Large heat pumps for industrial use are now also eligible for funding, provided by the German government-owned development bank KfW Banking Group. » read more
News from the ThermoMap Project
Apr. 06, 2011 – Erlangen, Germany and Bucharest, Romania have hosted the first two meetings of partners of the ThermoMap project, with work well and truly commenced. ThermoMap stands for “Area mapping of superficial geothermic resources by soil and groundwater data” and started in September 2010. By September 2013, ThermoMap aims at fostering the environment information in order to develop shallow geothermal systems across Europe. » read more
Britain’s renewable heat support: air-source heat pumps left out
Mar. 15, 2011 – The British government has announced details of its Renewable Heat Incentive policy that will encourage the uptake of renewable heat, including heat pumps. Long-term tariff support will initially be targeted at the non-domestic sector, while air source heat pumps will not be supported from the outset of the scheme but be considered for eligibility from 2012. » read more
Innovative CO2 technology combines heating and cooling at Sainsbury’s
Mar. 01, 2011 – Sainsbury’s 9300 m2 supermarket in Crayford, Kent, is a good example of how it is possible to sharply reduce the carbon footprint of a heating and cooling installation. Innovative Geoscart™ geo-exchange and CO2 transcritical booster refrigeration systems from SCM Frigo and SWEP in combination with an intelligent energy management system are expected to reduce the total energy consumption by 30%. » read more
Research project: Heat pump completes renovation
Feb. 14, 2011 – Early 2009, the BINE Project Info "Building Refurbishment – Office and Commercial Construction" presented a printing house in Karlsruhe, Germany which had been extended and thereby fundamentally refurbished in two steps. Now a complete evaluation report is available. The optimization of the building envelope and building services during the first restructuring phase improved the usability and building comfort considerably. After an intensive monitoring researchers of the Fraunhofer ISE balanced a primary energy saving of around 36 percent. Early 2010, the system was upgraded by a reversible ground source heat pump, which had not been installed in the first phase for cost reasons. Compared to the initial state, the primary energy demand of the enlarged building now has more than halved. » read more
Handbook of Best Practices for Geothermal Drilling
Feb. 03, 2011 – This 84-page report from the IEA Geothermal Implementing Agreement (GIA) presents a description of the complex process that comprises drilling a geothermal well. Its detailed chapters on various aspects of the process (casing design, cementing, logging and instrumentation, etc) focus on techniques and hardware that have proved successful in geothermal reservoirs around the world. GIA is an IEA international collaborative energy technology R&D programme. » read more
EHPA award "Heat pump city of the year"
Jan. 13, 2011 – Europe's climate protection and energy savings targets are demanding. It requires immediate action on all political levels to achieve meaningful results by 2020 already. Heat pumps are an available, reliable, efficient and cost effective solution in this quest. Unfortunately the technology is often very well hidden in basements and technic-rooms of buildings. » read more
IEA issues report on retrofit heat pumps for buildings in Europe
Dec. 15, 2010 – With the market potential of heat pumps for retrofitting existing buildings in Europe being much bigger than in new buildings, the International Energy Agency (IEA) Heat Pump Programme has put together a report on how to overcome the barriers in this appealing market sector. CO2 offers a solution for coping with the high design temperature of conventional heating systems that dominate in existing buildings. » read more
EHPA - Sepemo newsletter released: Market outlook 2009 and field measurement in focus
Dec. 08, 2010 – This fall is a season of reports on energy! The EU has published an update on its energy strategy, a new efficiency regulation is underway and EHPA has just now published one of its major reports: The Outlook 2010 - European Heat Pump Statistics. In the effort to implement the major Regulations and Directives passed recently, a solid database will become more and more important. EHPA is contributing to this challenge! » read more
Demo site development under progress
Nov. 22, 2010 – The integrated system engineering design of seven out of eight GROUND-MED demonstration projects has been completed and the respective documents shall be submitted to the European Commission with the second project report in March 2011. Construction works have commenced in most demonstration sites and are expected to be completed in mid 2011. Step by step, more detailed information on the work progress of the individual projects shall be published on this website. » read more
Analysis of the German heat pump market
Nov. 18, 2010 – A study recently presented by the Internationl Geothermal Center Bochum, Germany finds that by 2017 the number of ground-source heat pumps (GSHP) using geothermal and hydrothermal energy, sold annually in Germany will reach approx. 65.000 units. This number is a projection of the guidance given by the ministry for the environment in its own study ("Leitscenario"). » read more
The state of the Canadian geothermal heat pump industry 2010
Nov. 02, 2010 – The Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (CGC), Canada’s national industry association for geothermal heat pump technology, announces the release of an extensive statistical report entitled "The State of the Canadian Geothermal Heat Pump Industry 2010 – Industry Survey and Market Analysis". » read more
GROUND-MED information meeting to take place in Brussels
Oct. 19, 2010 – On 26 October 2010 the GROUND-MED project consortium will present initial results on state-of-the-art heat pump research at a meeting in Brussels. GROUND-MED focusses on achieving a measured seasonal performance (SPF) higher than 5,0 in eight exisiting demonstration buildings in the Mediterranean region. As the SPF is determined not only by the heat pump unit, but by its operating conditions imposed by both the ground heat exchanger and the heating/cooling system of the building, preparatory work is necessary to optimize each system design for the local conditions. » read more
GSHP to heat and cool air in Madrid metro
Sep. 23, 2010 – The project at the Pacifico station of the Madrid underground system aims to reuse waste heat produced by the trains and its users to heat and cool docks, offices and commercial spaces through a ground source heat pump system (GSHP). » read more
New project information from BINE Information Service
Sep. 07, 2010 – BINE, the German information service for applied research on energy saving and efficient use of energy including renewable resources, has recently published two information flyers presenting results from R&D projects with ground source heat pumps. » read more
Successful first Ground-Med seminar in Madrid
Jul. 27, 2010 – The first GROUND-MED seminar took place on the 24th of June, 2010 in the headquarter of BESEL in Leganés, Madrid, Spain. After a brief introduction to the GROUND-MED project from CRES (Centre for Renewable Energy Sources from Greece) as project coordinator, the program covered all aspects of innovative geothermal heat pump systems for heating and cooling in the Mediterranean climate, including BHE design, heat pump design and optimisation, system control for maximum energy efficiency and market opportunities. The case study of the GeoCool heat pump system (FP5) at the campus of the University of Valencia was also presented. » read more
GlobalPost presents world’s top energy entrepreneurs
Jul. 26, 2010 – GlobalPost, Boston, provides the only US Internet journalism site devoted exclusively to international news and related content. In a GlobalPost video series on renewable energy news excellent energy entrepeneurs around the world are presented. One of them is MENA Geothermal’s President, Khaled Al Sabawi, in Ramallah, who is heating and cooling homes in the West Bank with geothermal heat pumps. » read more
Creation of the French Association of Geothermal Professionals
Jul. 12, 2010 – On 15 June 2010 the French association of Geothermal professionals was created in Paris. Here are combined thermal engineering firms and underground engineering companies, drilling contractors, heating and air conditioning installers, heat pump manufacturers, operators and developers of heating networks and the manufacturers of geothermal and electricity chain. » read more
Three more Work Package meetings in 2010
Jul. 12, 2010 – Aimed at intensifying the cooperation between individual project partners working jointly at the design, installation, operation and monitoring of eight demonstration projects three more work package meetings took place in the first half of this year. » read more
CGC announces the winners of the 4th GeoExchange Excellence awards
Jun. 23, 2010 – The Canadian GeoExchange Coalition congratulates the 2010 winners of the 4th
GeoExchange Excellence awards. The prizes will be awarded at a series of independent events in the coming months. The winner of the Leadership award will be announced in Montréal on November 15, 2010 at the 4th National GeoExchange Technical & Policy Forum. » read more
Use of building foundation piles as ground heat exchangers
Jun. 01, 2010 – The latest newsletter of the IEA heat pump centre discusses how the foundation piles of a building can be applied as ground heat exchangers, leading to installation cost reductions. It provides examples of installations in Japan, including that in the headquarters of Mayekawa that employs an ammonia screw type heat pump unit. » read more
Largest ground source heating system underway in Denmark
May. 26, 2010 – The construction of the largest ground source heating system that will cater for a 28,000 sq.m. office building is underway in Denmark. The propane based system will be able to deliver a cooling capacity of 1200kW and 750kW heating simultaneously, while it will allow the owner to realise significant energy cost savings. » read more
GCG releases comprehensive report on GHG emission reductions
May. 05, 2010 – The Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (CGC), Canada’s national industry association for ground source heat pump technology, is pleased to announce the release of a research report entitled “Comparative analysis of greenhouse gas emissions of various residential heating systems in the Canadian provinces”. The document is being officially released during the 5th Annual Renewable Energy Conference 2010 “Powering Investments” held in Halifax, Nova Scotia on April 27th and 28th. This document is available on the CGC website. » read more
First VDI heat pump symposium in Stuttgart
Apr. 15, 2010 – On 8-9 June 2010 the 1. VDI-Konferenz "Wärmepumpen - Umweltwärme effizient nutzen" (Heat pumps - Efficient use of ambient heat) will take place in Stuttgart, Germany. Experts from R&D and industry will discuss the following topics: » read more
Heat Pump World at RENEXPO® Austria 2010
Mar. 24, 2010 – The international trade fair and conference RENEXPO® Austria takes place on 25-27 November 2010 in Salzburg. It covers the entire spectrum of regenerative energies with the main emphasis on bioenergy and hydro power as well as energy efficiency, addressing first and foremost energy efficient building and renovation and mobility. This year RENEXPO® Austria presents the "Heat Pump World", assisted by Bundesverband Wärme Pumpe Austria and the European Heat Pump Association (EHPA). » read more
Seven Work Package meetings took place in 2009
Mar. 17, 2010 – Aimed at intensifying the cooperation between individual project partners working jointly at the design, installation, operation and monitoring of eight demonstration projects at all seven work package meetings took place in 2009. » read more
Give us your input!
Mar. 08, 2010 – A public discussion forum has been launched on this website. It is primarily aimed at providing a discussion platform for key actors from the ground source heat pump community. Architects, planners, drillers, installers as well as heat pump manufacturers and suppliers are invited to discuss topics of interest among themselves and with the project partners. » read more
3rd Geotrainet Training Course announced
Feb. 11, 2010 – The 3rd Training Course will take place on 17-19 March 2010 in Peine, Germany. The topic is "Training Course for trainers in GSHP systems". It aims at presenting the European training framework to instructors for future national training courses. » read more
What level of support for heat pumps in the UK?
Feb. 09, 2010 – The UK government is currently considering the level of support that will be available from April 2011 for various renewable heat technologies, including heat pumps for residential through to industrial applications. The proposal means that medium scale ammonia heat pumps could benefit from a 5.5 pence/kWh incentive, while larger scale from 1.5 pence/kWh. » read more
USTDA Awards Grants to MENA Geothermal for District Geothermal System Study
Jan. 25, 2010 – MENA Geothermal has been awarded a grant by the United States Trade and Development Agency for a remarkable and ground breaking feasibility study of a District Geothermal Heating and Cooling System for the entire 522-unit Kober Affordable Housing Project near Ramallah. The energy demand for this project is estimated to be roughly over 5 MW of thermal energy. It is estimated that such a district geothermal system could save over $700,000 in operating costs every year and eliminate over 1,400 TONS of carbon dioxide emissions. » read more
AHRI commends Energy Star designation for geothermal heat pumps
Jan. 18, 2010 – The Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) recently commended the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the agency's recent announcement of new requirements for residential geothermal heat pumps (GHPs), which enabled water-to-water GHPs to earn the Energy Star® label for the first time. » read more
Ground source heating and cooling in Sweden
Dec. 22, 2009 – Ground source heat pumps (GSHP) were appearing in Sweden by as early as the end of the 1970s as a contribution to reducing the country’s dependency on oil. Horizontal and vertical closed-loop systems, together with a small number of systems extracting heat from ground water (open-loop systems) are currently replacing some 1.5 million m3 of oil annually. » read more
CGC: DX systems now qualify
Nov. 09, 2009 – Direct Expansion (DX) Geoexchange Systems now qualify for the Canadian ecoENERGY Retrofit - Homes Program. They are now included in the revised Canadian Standards Association (CSA) CAN/CSA-C448 Design and Installation of Earth Energy Systems as of October 20, 2009. » read more
More patent applications for ground source HVACs in Korea
Oct. 23, 2009 – The Korean Industrial Property Office (KIPO) reports that 90 patent applications related to ground-source heating and air conditioning technology were filed in 2008. Patent applications for 2009 are up substantially, making an almost three-fold jump over 2008. » read more
EurObserv'ER releases first Barometer dedicated to heat pumps
Oct. 16, 2009 – Ground source heat pumps are considered a comfortable, economic and environmentally friendly form of heating, with over 100,000 units installed annually for the last three years in the countries of the European Union. During the year 2008 112,157 systems have been sold driving the market back into growth (up 9.5 %), after dipping slightly between 2006 and 2007. By the end of 2008, the total number of systems installed in the European Union was estimated at over 780,000, equivalent to approximately 8,920.2 MWth of capacity. » read more
Swedish GSHP case study published
Oct. 07, 2009 – The "Swedish Ground Source Heat Pump Case Study" was published by the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences in July 2009. This study identifies aspects of Swedish experience in embracing ground source heat pump technology over the last 25 years. » read more
CGC calls for entries: Prizes for Excellence and Leadership 2009
Sep. 10, 2009 – As the national voice of the geoexchange industry, the Canadian GeoExchange Coalition (CGC) recognizes excellence and leadership in the field by awarding the annual Canadian GeoExchange Prizes for Excellence and Leadership. The Prize for National Leadership is awarded to an individual who has demonstrated ongoing leadership in the geoexchange industry; and the Prize for Excellence is awarded to five regional installation projects that showcase both complexity and quality of design. » read more
Training course for GSHP drillers in Dublin
Aug. 26, 2009 – A training course for "drillers for the installation of Geothermal Heat Pumps systems" will take place in Dublin (Ireland) on Monday and Tuesday 28-29 September 2009.
This course, which is a part of the GEOTRAINET project supported by the EC – IEE Altener programme, will provide geothermal fundamentals to GSHP drillers in order to be later certified.
» read more
New Danish project provides heat pump subsidies
Aug. 05, 2009 – The Danish Energy Agency has announced a research project aiming to measure the effectiveness of energy-labeled heat pumps. The project will award grants of up to 15,000 DKK (about €2,000) to 300 households for the installation of heat pumps that are energy-labeled, while additional funding wil be available for the metering equipment. » read more
GSHPs win the German energy savings competition
Jul. 22, 2009 – The German Energy Agency (DENA) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment were searching for hidden champions in the housing renovation sector. They found six winners of the category "heat pumps" and and the first winner of the category "combined heating systems" - all using ground source heat pumps! » read more
New spiral heat exchangers made of plastic materials
Jul. 01, 2009 – Makatec Apparate GmbH developed a heat exchanger unit made of polymer materials for use with aggressive liquids. Now, this heat exchanger shall be used as a link between standard heat pumps and aggressive media like seawater, well water or waste water. » read more
GEOTHERMICA 2009
Jun. 15, 2009 – The 1st International Exhibition on Geothermal Energy and Heat Pumps takes place in Milan, Milan Fair Center - Rho,
25 - 28 November 2009. GEOTHERMICA 2009 is the new exhibition entirely focused on systems, technology, machinery, equipment and services for clean energy produced from under the ground and ground-source heat pumps. » read more
ENERGY GLOBE AWARD 2008 (2)
May. 08, 2009 – CRES has been awarded the prestigious NATIONAL ENERGY GLOBE AWARD 2008 for GREECE, for its work on the GROUNDHIT project. The award honors companies and individuals for outstanding contributions in the fields of renewable energy, energy conservation, and environmental responsibility. Winners are selected from among 700 applicants world wide, and are chosen by an international jury comprised of prominent scientific, academic, and industry leaders. » read more
European Technology Platform - RHC
Apr. 29, 2009 – EGEC (European Geothermal Energy Council) invites the European geothermal community to the Official Launch of the Geothermal Panel in the European Technology Platform for renewable heating and cooling (ETP-RHC): Kick-off meeting on 26 June 2009 in Brussels (Renewable Energy House). » read more
Update of Ground-Reach reports
Apr. 3, 2009 - An updated version of all reports (deliverables) prepared in the course of the Ground-Reach project as well as the final publishable report is now available for download.
» read more
ENERGY GLOBE AWARD 2008 (1)
Mar. 20, 2009 - MENA Geothermal has been awarded the prestigious NATIONAL ENERGY GLOBE AWARD 2008 for Palestine. The award honors companies and individuals for outstanding contributions in the fields of renewable energy, energy conservation, and environmental responsibility. Winners are selected from among 700 applicants world wide, and are chosen by an international jury comprised of prominent scientific, academic, and industry leaders. » read more
