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Geothermal Probes

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Geothermal Energy

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Abstract

Geothermal probes are liquid-filled tubes installed in a borehole. There are different types of geothermal probes including single U-tube probes, double U-tube probes and coaxial probes. Cool liquid flows downward in the tubes and accumulates heat from the surrounding ground. The warmed liquid turns around in the U-shaped foot at bottom hole and flows back to the heat pump at the surface. The heat pump uses the extracted ground heat to increase the fluid temperature of a secondary cycle so that it can be used for heating purposes. To promote sustainability and long term operation of the heating system it is important to limit the withdrawal of thermal energy from the ground during the annual house heating period to the natural heat influx to the reservoir. Heat extraction must be balanced by natural regeneration.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geo- and Environmental Sciences, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Ingrid Stober & Kurt Bucher

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  1. Ingrid Stober
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  2. Kurt Bucher
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Correspondence to Ingrid Stober .

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Stober, I., Bucher, K. (2021). Geothermal Probes. In: Geothermal Energy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-71685-1_6

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