Geothermal heat pumps harness the renewable energy sources deep underground for heating and cooling purposes. Geothermal or ground-source heat pumps circulate water or a working fluid around loops of pipes buried in the ground. The water or fluid is heated up by the warm conditions of the soil deep underground before being passed through a heat exchanger to extract the heat to provide space or water heating. By reversing the operation of geothermal heat pumps, the heat of summer months inside a building can be captured and returned back underground in a process called geothermal cooling
Geothermal energy works by extracting the free and reliable heat energy deep within the earths core. Today there are different technologies available which can harness this immense, renewable, and low or zero emissions energy resource. Hydrothermal systems are the most common source of geothermal energy production around the world exploiting the hot water and/or steam trapped deep underground in fractured or porous rock formations. Hydrothermal sources can be used directly to heat buildings, greenhouses, and swimming pools, or used to produce steam for electrical power generation. The technology used to convert geothermal energy into an important energy resource for our world is well established and known
