Three story residential villa in a larger building block at the north-west outskirts of Ramallah / Al Bireh, West Bank.

Each block consists of 5 flats with a total floor space of approx. 340m².

A geothermal heat pump system provides heating and cooling.

Partners

Palestinian Energy Authority zafer.milhem@menr.org
Union Construction and Investment (UCI) khaled@uci.ps
Supported by Mena Geothermal kalsabawi@gmail.com

Summary

The objective of the pilot project is to increase building construction efficiency and to promote the use of clean, renewable geothermal energy for heating and cooling at a lower operating cost than a typical conventional system. It is expected to attract project developers and investors to geothermal energy and to raise awareness at government level and among the general public to use this cost and energy efficient technology.

The geothermal concept installed, involves a water to air electrical heat pump, using a vertical ground-loop and a duct distribution system.

Profitability

From a financial point of view, the pilot project allows reducing the primary energy consumption by around 25% associated with energy cost savings of 60% for heating and cooling compared to a conventional building. The additional investment cost compared to a conventional building is approx. 40,000 € which leads to a pay pack time of about 6 years, once experience has been gained.

Main technical features of the Pilot Project

The energy concept of the pilot project is based on a the use of a geothermal ground water / air heat pump designed for heating and cooling and on the improvement of the insulation of the building envelope.

Basic measures with high / moderate cost efficiency:

• Reduction of heating and cooling load by 20% due to enhanced insulation of the building envelope
• Improved and airtight windows
• High efficient electrically powered geothermal heat pump with vertical heat exchanger
• Expected Coefficient of Performance (COP) of the heat pump of 5.3 for cooling and 4.0 for heating
• Solar collectors for domestic hot water

Main results of the Pilot Project

The pilot project yields energy cost savings of 60% for heating and cooling, compared to a conventional building.

There were high learning costs and market barriers for the first implementation of a geothermal system in Palestine; the private investor would not have taken this risk without the support of MED-ENEC.

Graph 1

Thanks to the experiences gained through the pilot project, the application of the same technologies in future projects will only demand about 5% additional cost, with a very attractive pay-back period of only 6 years.

Graph 2

Due to the high economic potential in Palestine and the region, the private investor UCI has created a new company "MENA Geothermal" in order to tap this business opportunity. The first project was the equipment of the new 4,600 m2 UCI headquarters in Ramallah with another geothermal system.

Supporting material

Download PP Poster Palestine here.