Geothermal heat pump application for CO2 reduction using Clean Development Mechanism

Geothermal heat pumps have several advantages over conventional heating and cooling systems. They can operate in both winter and summer, have high efficiencies, and do not directly emit any greenhouse gases during operation. Investors (in developing countries) can use Clean Development Mechanism as a source of financing for new or existing renewable energy facilities by selling Certified Emission Reductions credits (CERs), which represent the amount of CO2 emission (1 CER = 1 tCO(2)eq) that is avoided using renewable energy. The aim of this paper is to analyze the possibility of CO2 reduction by using geothermal heat pumps for fossil fuel displacement with applying Clean Development Mechanism. Results have shown that by using geothermal heat pumps during a 7-year crediting period, the estimated emission reduction would be 79.45 tCO(2) (equal to 80 CERs), enabling the investor to achieve profit from selling 80 CERs and thus helping to fund the proposed project activity. Three main factors which influence the amount of CO2 reduction have been identified: carbon-dioxide emission factor for electricity source, efficiency of technology used for baseline scenario, and coefficient of performance (COP) of heat pumps. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.