Prospects of shallow geothermal systems for sustainable heating and cooling of buildings

Net-zero-energy buildings have the potential to mitigate climate change through reduced energy use. Shallow geothermal systems use the thermal inertia of the Earth to provide a temperature gradient between ambient conditions and underground soils. This thermal inertia can be used by heat exchangers to provide space heating and cooling during winter and summer, respectively. This paper provides a brief but broad overview of the different active and passive technologies involved in the use of heat exchangers for heating and cooling to achieve near net-zero-energy buildings. Different types of ground heat exchangers (GHEs) and heat pumps are introduced along with relevant studies of significance in this field. It has been demonstrated that different types of heat exchangers can be integrated with thermally active building envelopes and renewable energy resources to minimise building energy use. A pathway is then presented for using GHEs to realise net-zero-energy buildings.