GC: n

CT: Yet even as GHPs gain increasing recognition as an energy- and cost-saving heating and air conditioning alternative, highly variable state and local policies governing water wells is posing a significant barrier to their more widespread adoption. It’s a growing problem that is getting bigger.
But in some states and localities, policy makers have patched regulations governing geothermal boreholes into existing policies for water wells. In doing so, regulators fail to recognize that even though geothermal boreholes are drilled into the earth, their final installation is not at all like a water well.
According to a National Ground Water Association industry survey in 2009, some 80 percent of the states regulate boreholes drilled for vertical, closed loop geothermal heat exchangers under their water well codes.
When this happens, the resulting rules create an unnecessary barrier to GHP deployment. Closed-loop geothermal boreholes may be subjected to unrealistic setbacks from water lines, sewers and septic systems. Especially in urban areas, overly restrictive setbacks of 50 feet or more kill GHP sales and installations by eliminating the possibility of installing closed loop geothermal heat exchangers on residential and even commercial lots.
For example, Illinois lawmakers recently redefined a closed-loop geothermal borehole as a “closed loop well” in the state water well code. The result is new proposed regulations demanding egregious setbacks for geothermal boreholes that in many cases will preclude GHP system installations. And in California, state water law defines a geothermal borehole as a “geothermal heat exchange well,” which subjects them to similar unrealistic demands.

S: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/11/geothermal-boreholes-are-not-wells (last access: 22 July 2014).

N: 1. Borehole which is drilled for the exploitation of ground water.
2. The exploitation techniques by means of geothermal boreholes are similar to those the of petroleum industry.
3. Cultural Interrelation: Geothermal Energy: From Theoretical Models to Exploration and Development (2013) by Ingrid Stober, Kurt Bucher.

S: 1. GDT. 2. TERMIUMPLUS. 3. http://www.ebooks-share.net/geothermal-energy-from-theoretical-models-to-exploration-and-development/ (last access: 31 March 2015).

SYN: geothermal well

S: TERMIUMPLUS

CR: geothermal energy, geothermics.