Technical potential of ground-source heat pumps for Western Switzerland

This dataset contains an estimation of the technical potential of shallow ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs) for Western Switzerland, at a spatial resolution of 200 x 200 m². The technical potential is hereby defined as the maximum energy that could be extracted from GSHP systems in case of their dense deployment, such as to avoid the over-exploitation of the heat capacity of the ground. We consider GSHPs with vertical closed-loop borehole heat exchangers (BHE) installed at depths of 50 - 200 m. The dataset covers around 80,000 property units (parcels) in the Swiss Cantons of Vaud and Geneva, excluding only the areas of the Alps and the Jura mountains.

The estimated potential accounts for:

• Norms for geothermal installations set by the Swiss Society of Engineers and Architects (SIA 384/6)
• Thermal interferences between neighbouring boreholes and their impact on the temperature change in the ground
• Topographic Landscape data to assess the available area for BHE installation

The methodology used to generate the data is described in:

Walch, Alina, Nahid Mohajeri, Agust Gudmundsson, and Jean-Louis Scartezzini. ‘Quantifying the Technical Geothermal Potential from Shallow Borehole Heat Exchangers at Regional Scale’. Renewable Energy 165 (2021): 369–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2020.11.019.

Dataset description

As the data is targeted to large-scale applications and potential studies, it is shared in the format of pixels of 200 x 200 m². Upon request it can be provided at different aggregation levels, as it is generated at the resolution of individual building units (parcels). The potential is provided as annual values, and it can be converted to monthly values using the provided heating degree weights. For each pixel of 200 x 200 m², we provide the following variables:

• Annual  total technical heat extraction potential (in MWh)
• Potential heat delivered to buildings (heat pump output), assuming a heat pump performance (COP) of 4.5 (in MWh)
• Available area for GSHP installation (in m²)
• Number of installed boreholes 
• Average heat extraction rate (in W/m)
• Average borehole depth (in m)
• Average borehole spacing within the parcels located in the pixel (in m)
• Heating degree weights (i.e. heat demand variation) for each month

A description of the metadata is provided in the document gshp_VD_GE_metadata_V1.pdf.

This work is part of the PhD Thesis of Alina Walch.