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There are a lot of near-surface options for heating and cooling. They reduce electrical usage rather than generate it. I worked on geo control systems for FL b

There are a lot of near-surface options for heating and cooling. They reduce electrical usage rather than generate it. I worked on geo control systems for FL buildings. We'd pump water up from the aquifer, transfer heat from the building into it and dump it back. It starts getting cost effective above 10k or 15k sqft. In northern states they do large closed loops wound over a large yard or field and buried just below the surface to capture daytime heat or pump heat into the earth. Basically a larger version of rooftop water heating. There are a lot of variants of this but you get the idea.

Bedon292 3y ago
My understanding is that, while you can do surface loops with enough area, its easier and less disruptive to just do vertical holes for ground loops. At least in Northern Virginia drill ~150ft of well per ton. At 400ft the wells maintain temperature a relatively consistent temperature year round year round.
- theluketaylor 3y ago
  Drilling down is best for retrofitting existing structures and built environments, but for new neighbourhood development trenching is super cheap since you have to disturb all that dirt anyway. Prep for roads and all the underground services means you have the ground open anyway, might as well run some coolant lines while you're down there. District heating loops can be done almost for free with greenfield development and it should be highly incentivized to slash the energy required to heat and cool the new structures.