UK May Reach Renewable Goals with Ground Pumps

It now seems that some researchers suggest that ground pumps could help the UK meet its renewable energy targets by 2020. The Environment Agency says that renewable technology that uses energy stored in the ground to heat buildings and provide hot water could be installed in hundreds of thousands of homes all across the UK. All of this could be done by the end of the next decade.

Almost 8,000 ground source heat pump systems are operating in the UK. This is far fewer than in any other European country, such as Sweden. This holds true even though the market is expanding very rapidly and doubled last year’s growth.

The report from the Environment Agency concluded that the technology could be installed in as many as 320,000 homes and businesses by 2020. However, this could only be done with support from the government. If enough support was given to the renewable heat incentive, which will be introduced in 2012, and payments given to homeowners and businesses is set at a guaranteed price for generating renewable heat, more than 1 million ground source heat pump systems could be in place.

At the top end of its potential, ground source heat technology could be installed in more than one in every 10 homes. Also, it could be place in about 40 percent of all commercial buildings. However, even if the growth was limited to just 320,000 homes and businesses, which would be broken up into 1 percent of households and 11 percent of commercial buildings, it could provide 30 percent of the renewable heat that the UK needs to produce to meet its 2020 target.