Researchers believe that 15% of homes in Scotland could be powered with low-carbon energy produced by capturing heat from the ground in the country’s urban parks. The use of ground-source heat pumps in the parks to send warmth to nearby homes would see the replacement of traditional gas-fired boilers, which produce a significant amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The researchers’ study says the pumps – connected to horizontal coils which extract heat from the soil – would be buried at least 1 metre under football pitches or recreational grassland. A pilot district heating system in Edinburgh has been trialling the concept.
Nearly 15% of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions are from residential properties, and the majority of this is from heating. The country believes that it must switch homes to district heating systems – preferably using renewable sources, such as this ground-heat concept – in order to decarbonise the heat network and achieve its net zero emissions target by 2045.
District heating systems (where heat and hot water are piped to nearby homes) are more efficient than households using individual boilers, and if the district system uses green energy, then all the better. Perhaps the biggest hurdle to overcome, though, is the initial upheaval and cost of adapting and connecting homes to such systems.
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Researchers believe that 15% of homes in Scotland could be powered with low-carbon energy produced by capturing heat from the ground in the country’s urban parks. The use of ground-source heat pumps in the parks to send warmth to nearby homes would see the replacement of traditional gas-fired boilers, which produce a significant amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The researchers’ study says the pumps – connected to horizontal coils which extract heat from the soil – would be buried at least 1 metre under football pitches or recreational grassland. A pilot district heating system in Edinburgh has been trialling the concept.
Nearly 15% of Scotland’s greenhouse gas emissions are from residential properties, and the majority of this is from heating. The country believes that it must switch homes to district heating systems – preferably using renewable sources, such as this ground-heat concept – in order to decarbonise the heat network and achieve its net zero emissions target by 2045.
District heating systems (where heat and hot water are piped to nearby homes) are more efficient than households using individual boilers, and if the district system uses green energy, then all the better. Perhaps the biggest hurdle to overcome, though, is the initial upheaval and cost of adapting and connecting homes to such systems.