Why are ground source heat pumps being left behind ?
UK housebuilders are slow on the uptake According to one GHSP expert, overall the UK take-up of geothermal energy “is pathetic”. Yet a DTI report places it significantly ahead of other renewables in terms of initial capital cost, output, payback and annual CO2 savings. Countries such as Sweden, Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France are surging ahead. While we are about 20 years behind them! Last year, for instance, Sweden installed 30,000 systems and Germany well over 10,000. Switzerland has the highest density per head of population in the world and about one in three new houses has a heat pump. France, too, is leaping ahead installing in the order of 20,000 systems in 2005 – if not more. While the United States and Canada completed in the order of 200,000. Apparently, in the UK, approximately 500 GSHP accounted for systems were installed last year. Virtually all of the UK initiative has been in the social housing sector with mainly housing associations leading the way. This is bec
