Ground Source Heat Pump Mass Deployment reduces grid requirements by 33%!
U.S. Department of Energy’s latest report on the grid impact of ground source (geothermal) heat pumps provides a path to electrification without “breaking” the grid. Below are quotes from the report and a link for download.
• Even though building heating is electrified with GHP deployment—increasing winter electricity use for homes and businesses that otherwise are heated with fossil fuels—the increase is more than offset by the electricity savings from the high-efficiency performance of GHPs for summer cooling and reduced thermal loads owing to weatherization in single-family homes, resulting in substantial net reductions in grid generation, capacity, and transmission.
• The mass GHP deployment reduces transmission expansion requirements by 33% under the Grid Decarbonization scenario and by 38% under the EFS scenario. This amount equates to roughly 24,500 mi of transmission that can be avoided under the Grid Decarbonization scenario and nearly twice as much (43,500 mi) under the EFS scenario, which is enough to cross the average contiguous US coast-to-coast distance 9 and 16 times, respectively.
To learn more about the report, click here.
NOTES: “GHP” is “Geothermal Heat Pump”, one of the terms used for Ground Source Heat Pump or Geothermal Heat Pump technology. “EFS” is “Electrification Futures Study”.