A well park with energy wells has been established for operation with a heat pump for the Li artificial turf pitches in Gjelleråsen.

The energy central supplies heat to Li artificial turf pitches, consisting of one main pitch and one training pitch. The energy source are energy wells up to 500 m deep.

Energy well park

A total of 27 energy wells were drilled up to 500 m deep, which will keep the artificial turf pitches snow-free and playable throughout the winter.

The energy wells were supplemented with an oval collector that provides less pressure loss and increased energy absorption. By drilling deeper, the number of energy wells is reduced and it is possible to achieve greater spacing between the energy wells, which in turn provides greater rock volume that can be utilized.

This, together with an increased starting temperature in the energy wells by drilling deeper, means that drilled well meters can often be reduced by up to 40% compared to shallow energy wells.

At Li artificial turf fields, the well park is drilled along the side of the football fields and other surrounding areas in close proximity to the energy central.

Energy Central

The solution consists of one 500 kW heat pump, one 200 kW electric boiler and a heat exchanger that is used for free heat from the energy wells.

Since the system was commissioned earlier this winter, a SCOP of 7 has been achieved.

In the summer, when there is no need for heat in the football fields, the energy central is used for summer charging. The football fields are used as solar collectors to collect energy that is dumped into the energy wells to charge them, which will increase the capacity from the energy wells in the winter and provide a better heat factor from the heat pump over time.

Summer charging gives the football club an extended training period.

In previous years, Gjelleråsen IF, using gas to heat the pitches, has not seen it economically viable to keep the pitches playable when the cold and snow arrive in November and December. With the new geothermal system from GTML and the possibility of charging of the energy wells during summer will open the possibility for GIF to offer training also in the last months of the year at a fraction of the price of keeping the pitches playable compared to gas.

Summer charging opens up the possibility of free heat, with heat exchange between energy wells and the pitch at the start of the season.

GTML ready to roll out the concept to other artificial turf pitches

In Norway, there are over 200 artificial turf pitches that are heated with gas or other energy sources; converting from gas heating to heat pumps will reduce CO2 emissions by 120 tons/year per pitch and become zero.

For Nittedal municipality, the largest single emission of CO2 is removed by converting from gas heating to geothermal heating.

The GTML concept with deep energy wells can easily replace gas heating and other fossil and expensive energy sources for heating football fields.

The geothermal heating system provides significant reductions in operating costs for the football club, with deep energy wells, a specially adapted heat pump and the latest technology in the control system reducing energy consumption for heating the football fields by up to 80%. With the GTML concept, operating costs are kept low and stable for the football club and the football players get top playing conditions during the winter months on the football fields.