Environment Agency
Environmental good practice guide
for ground source heating and cooling
Environment Agency – Good Practice Guide
The Environment Agency is a government body charged with protecting the environment and promoting sustainable development. It recognises that ground source heating and cooling can achieve significant greenhouse gas emission reductions and help the UK aim for its very ambitious target of generating 15 per cent of UK energy from a mix of renewable sources by 2020.
The Agency has written an environmental good practice guide for designers, developers, installers, drillers and owners of ground source heating and cooling ("GSHC") schemes which sets out what needs to be done to comply with environmental legislation and manage environmental risks. The guide refers to the GSHPA Vertical Borehole Standard.
Closed loop systems need no consents
Most GSHC systems employ closed loop ground source heat exchangers and do not require any permissions from the Environment Agency, although its GSHC guide can be useful to developers wishing to install such systems.
Open loop systems need consents from the Environment Agency
For open loop ground source heat pump installations the Environment Agency requires:
- a groundwater investigation consent
- an abstraction licence
- an environmental permit to discharge
See the full text of the Environment Agency's Environmental good practice guide for ground source heating and cooling
.ICAX Projects using GSHC:
Toddington | Howe Dell | Hiroshima | HMP Garth | Merton IGC | Suffolk One | Tesco | Wellington
