Standing Column Wells: A transformative opportunity to provide heating to buildings in dense urban areas.

Ground-coupled heat pump systems can help reducing energy consumption and electrical peak power demand while contributing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. A key element of these systems is the ground heat exchanger that links the mechanical equipments to the underground geological materials. Although most ground heat exchangers are composed of closed-loop wells, standing column wells (SCW) represent a transformative opportunity in dense urban areas where aquifer productivity is limited. Based on a decade of research conducted in the area of Montreal in Canada, this conference will illustrate the potential of SCWs, present the preliminary results of two demonstration projects, discuss the impact of hydrogeological and hydrogeochemichal conditions on system design and discuss some recent advances related to field testing and modeling of SCWs. The challenges that remain to be overcome will also be discussed.