Assessing the potential of energy sharing through a shallow geothermal heating and cooling network

Shallow geothermal offers great potential to supply emission-free heating and cooling and has therefore a pivotal role in the transition of heating and cooling networks. This paper presents a novel heating and cooling network with possible geothermal energy sharing between decentralized borefields located at each building level. The system consolidates the benefits of both standalone and centralized energy systems to attain high-efficiency gains and ensure a secure heating and cooling supply. To study the expected system performance, a simulation model is demonstrated and applied to a real-world case study consisting of three new buildings located in Malmö, Sweden. Simulation results revealed that the established synergy through geothermal energy sharing can reduce the purchased electric energy by 23 % and increase the annual performance factors for heating and cooling by 31 and 35 %, respectively compared to the standalone system.