Performance analysis of deep borehole heat exchangers for decarbonization of heating systems

Abstract

Meeting the climate change mitigation targets will require a substantial shift from fossil to clean fuels in the heating sector. Heat pumps with deep borehole exchangers are a promising solution to reduce emissions. Here the thermal behavior of deep borehole exchangers (DBHEs) ranging from 1 to 2 km was analyzed for various heat flow profiles. A strong correlation between thermal energy extraction and power output from DBHEs was found, also influenced by the heating profile employed. Longer operating time over the year typically resulted in higher energy production, while shorter one yielded higher average thermal power output, highlighting the importance of the choice of heating strategy and system design for optimal performance of DBHEs. Short breaks in operation for regenerating the borehole, for example, with waste heat, proved to be favorable for the performance yielding an overall heat output close to the same as with continuous extraction of heat. The results demonstrate the usefulness of deep boreholes for dense urban areas with less available space. As the heat production from a single DBHE in Finnish conditions ranges from half up to even a few GWh a year, the technology is best suitable for larger heat loads.