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Geothermal Vertical Closed Loop Suitability 1:40,000 Ireland (ROI) ITM

Category: Energy
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Geothermal Vertical Closed Loop suitability map.

Ground source heat energy, sometimes called shallow geothermal energy, can be collected from the ground and boosted with heat pumps. This can yield up to four times as much energy as is used to collect it, giving ‘four for the price of one’ in energy terms. Heat energy can be harnessed, or ‘collected’, using different types of collector systems:

Closed loop collectors are systems where heat is extracted from the ground (or cooling is gained) by pumping a heat exchange fluid through closed pipes within the ground. The pipes can be installed borehole(s) (vertical closed loop) or laid out horizontally (horizontal closed loop).

Open loop ground source heat systems operate by taking heat energy from abstracted groundwater using a heat pump. The volume of groundwater that can be abstracted from a borehole or taken from a spring each day (the ‘yield’) determines the total amount of heat energy available, and therefore the size of heat pump that can be used and the size of building that can be heated.

The ground source heating/cooling suitability maps indicate which type of ground source heat collector is most compatible with the geology below your site. All maps should be assessed together, since whilst some areas may be unsuitable for one type of ground source heat collector system (‘ground source heat pumps’ or GSHPs), the heat energy can be successfully harnessed by a different type of system. The maps show that there is a shallow geothermal solution for heating or cooling for every location in Ireland.

The suitability maps use a suitability rating ranging from 1 (worst) to 5 (best) for each type of heat collector/cooling system. Suitability maps for open loop (domestic/small commercial), open loop (larger commercial/industrial processes) and vertical closed loop systems are available.

This map is to the scale 1:40,000. This means it should be viewed at that scale. When printed at that scale 1cm on the map relates to a distance of 400m.

It is a vector dataset. Vector data portray the world using points, lines, and polygons (areas).

The data is shown as polygons. Each polygon holds information on: Suitability Class and Suitability Description.

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Theme Energy
Date released 2016-04-06
Date updated 2021-10-14
Dataset conforms to these standards The INSPIRE Directive or INSPIRE lays down a general framework for a Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) for the purposes of European Community environmental policies and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment.
Rights notes {"Data that is produced directly by the Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) is free for use under the conditions of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode Under the CC-BY Licence, users must acknowledge the source of the Information in their product or application. Please use this specific attribution statement: \"Contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence\". In cases where it is not practical to use the statement users may include a URI or hyperlink to a resource that contains the required attribution statement.","Data that is produced directly by the Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) is free for use under the conditions of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode Under the CC-BY Licence, users must acknowledge the source of the Information in their product or application. Please use this specific attribution statement: \"Contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence\". In cases where it is not practical to use the statement users may include a URI or hyperlink to a resource that contains the required attribution statement.",license,"Data that is produced directly by the Geological Survey Ireland (GSI) is free for use under the conditions of Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode Under the CC-BY Licence, users must acknowledge the source of the Information in their product or application. Please use this specific attribution statement: \"Contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence\". In cases where it is not practical to use the statement users may include a URI or hyperlink to a resource that contains the required attribution statement.",license}
Update frequency Other
Language English
Landing page https://dcenr.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=9ee46bee08de41278b90a991d60c0b9e
Geographic coverage in GeoJSON format {"type":"Polygon","coordinates":[[[-10.47472, 51.44555],[-10.47472, 55.37999], [-6.01306, 55.37999], [-6.01306, 51.44555], [-10.47472, 51.44555]]]}
Spatial Reference Systems (SRS) Irish Transverse Mercator (ITM, EPSG:2157)
Vertical Extent {"maxVerticalExtent": "0", "verticalDomainName": "sea level", "minVerticalExtent": "0"}
Provenance information The Geological Survey of Ireland has produced ground source heat suitability maps for different collector types – closed loop horizontal, closed loop vertical and open loop. In the case of open loop, two maps have been developed – for domestic-scale systems and for commercial-scale systems – since the groundwater volume demand will be different in each case. The maps are based on different geological maps, such as subsoil, bedrock and aquifers. The Geological Survey of Ireland produces and holds maps for subsoil type, bedrock type, and groundwater availability (aquifers). These maps can be useful in making preliminary assessments about whether the ground conditions under your site would be favorable for closed loop systems, open loop systems or both. Groundwater Resource or Aquifer map. Delineates different volumes of bedrock or sand/gravel according to their groundwater resource potential. Aquifers are subsurface bedrock or sand/gravel deposits capable of storing and transmitting groundwater in useable quantities. Virtually all rock types are able to yield sufficient water for a domestic drinking water supply, but not all rock types are guaranteed to give sufficient water for an open loop GSHP, unless fracture zones are located. The better supplies can be found in karst limestone rocks (blue and aqua), well-fractured rock (green) and sands/gravels (maroon). The less productive bedrock aquifers are shown in brown and beige. Groundwater Vulnerability map Identifies different areas of the land surface according to how well they protect the groundwater resource beneath. Areas where the subsoil is <1m thick or rock is outcropping are shown in red and generally will not be suitable for horizontal closed loop systems, unless the site is enhanced by the provision of additional cover. Areas where the subsoil is up to 3m thick are shown in pink and may or may not be suitable for horizontal loop systems. Areas shown in green comprise >10m of clay, and will be highly suitable for horizontal and vertical closed loop systems. Subsoil type map Identifies different subsoil types that occur between the base of the soil zone and above the top of the bedrock. Different subsoil types have different moisture contents and thermal properties. Tills (shown in dark blue and purple) can be silt- or clayrich, with clays particularly favoring moisture retention. Peats (shown in brown) have a very high moisture content. Sands/gravels (shown in green), unless fully saturated with groundwater (i.e. below the water table), are generally poor at retaining moisture and, therefore, are poor at conducting heat through the ground. Alluvium (river sediments, shown in orange) are usually saturated, but limited in extent. Subsoil permeability map Identifies areas of highly, moderately and poorly permeable subsoils. Different subsoil types have different moisture contents and thermal properties. Low and moderate permeability subsoils (shown in blue and yellow, respectively) are dominated by clay and silt, and have good moisture retention capacity, which is beneficial for transfer of heat from the underground to the heat collector pipes in closed loop systems. High permeability (shown in green) subsoils are dominated by sand and gravel. Where these are unsaturated (i.e. above the groundwater table), these subsoils are not good at transferring heat from the ground to the collector loop. The ground source heat suitability maps are intended for use in making preliminary assessments about whether the ground conditions under your site would be favourable for closed loop systems, open loop systems, or both. Site assessments should be undertaken to confirm site conditions and the influence they will have on the system design. Other factors influencing system design will include the site footprint and access. In some cases, sites can be engineered to allow particular systems to be used in otherwise unfavorable settings. Important factors in the suitability of a site for vertical closed loop systems are the subsoil thickness and the thermal conductivity of the bedrock. In 2024, a new database was created in ArcGIS Enterprise. Using ArcGIS Pro 2.3, the dataset was renamed as part of a GSI data standardisation process. Metadata was updated to the new GSI standard based on INSPIRE and ISO standards.
Period of time covered (begin) 2016-04-06
Period of time covered (end) 2016-04-06