Developing clean energy policy supported by science-based research is essential for mitigating the hazards and risks associated with climate change. This study aims to explore ground source heat pump (GSHP) systems, an underutilized energy efficiency technology, as a means to promote emission reductions in the buildings sector. GSHP systems have the capacity to decrease the environmental impact of building space heating and cooling needs through fossil fuel displacement and higher energy efficiencies than baseline technologies. Although the benefits and engineering applications of this technology are established, it has not been adopted at scale, thus limiting potential emission reductions. Furthermore, energy economics can vary significantly across geographies which makes quantifying benefits of mitigation action challenging in regions with diverse electricity generator types and building heating fuels. This study uses life cycle analysis (LCA) to evaluate mid- and long-term sustainability metric impacts of GSHP systems operating in New Jersey, US, to assess the technology’s effectiveness while operating within the state’s electricity generating fuel mix. Results show that the state is a suitable location for residential GSHP systems, and that an electricity generation fuel mix with increased use of renewable energy sources would enhance the technology’s efficiency and decrease associated emissions even further. In addition, we compared GSHP technology to that of other common space heating/cooling methods and found that use of GSHP systems in conjunction with electric-based heating/cooling provides a substantial improvement in terms of environmental emissions. When compared to oil and gas-based heating, GSHP systems provided some improvement on mid-point impact factors and considerable improvement on end-point impact factors, most notably the economic improvement associated with decreasing dependence on fossil fuels. These findings suggest that GSHP systems should be considered for reducing emissions and end-use energy consumption and support new clean energy policies in the state.

制定由科学研究支持的清洁能源政策对于减轻与气候变化相关的危害和风险至关重要。本研究旨在探索地源热泵 (GSHP) 系统，这是一种未充分利用的能效技术，作为促进建筑部门减排的一种手段。地源热泵系统有能力通过替代化石燃料和比基准技术更高的能源效率来减少建筑空间供暖和制冷需求对环境的影响。尽管该技术的优势和工程应用已经确立，但尚未大规模采用，因此限制了潜在的减排量。此外，不同地区的能源经济学可能会有很大差异，这使得在具有不同发电机类型和建筑取暖燃料的地区量化缓解行动的收益具有挑战性。本研究使用生命周期分析 (LCA) 来评估在美国新泽西州运行的地源热泵系统的中长期可持续性指标影响，以评估该技术在该州发电燃料组合内运行时的有效性。结果表明，该州是住宅 GSHP 系统的合适地点，增加使用可再生能源的发电燃料组合将提高该技术的效率并进一步减少相关排放。此外，我们将地源热泵技术与其他常见的空间加热/冷却方法进行了比较，发现将地源热泵系统与基于电力的加热/冷却结合使用可显着改善环境排放。与基于石油和天然气的供暖相比，地源热泵系统在中点影响因素方面提供了一些改进，并在端点影响因素方面有显着改进，最显着的是与减少对化石燃料的依赖相关的经济改进。这些发现表明，地源热泵系统应考虑减少排放和终端能源消耗，并支持该州新的清洁能源政策。地源热泵系统在中点影响因素上有一些改进，对终点影响因素有相当大的改进，最显着的是与减少对化石燃料的依赖相关的经济改进。这些发现表明，地源热泵系统应考虑减少排放和终端能源消耗，并支持该州新的清洁能源政策。地源热泵系统在中点影响因素上有一些改进，对终点影响因素有相当大的改进，最显着的是与减少对化石燃料的依赖相关的经济改进。这些发现表明，地源热泵系统应考虑减少排放和终端能源消耗，并支持该州新的清洁能源政策。