INCREASING GSHP NUMBERS THROUGH INNOVATION, DEPLOYMENT AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Increasing the number of Ground Source Heat Pumps (GSHPs) requires a combination of looking at the successes of the past, identifying the cause of past failures and taking corrective actions by involving industry constituents. Innovation comes when traditional practices cannot be reconfigured to be successful and new approaches to system design are required. To simply argue that a ground heat exchanger replaces a cooling tower and boiler almost guarantees that no thought will be given to reducing costs from new indoor piping technology and materials and system modularization. Entrepreneurship comes about when industry people see that increasing GSHP numbers will occur when deficiencies in technology and/or business practices are changed. Deployment will occur when consumers are convinced by successful applications that the GSHP technology is fundamentally sound. This paper will present examples of innovation, entrepreneurship and deployment methods of GSHP constituents that are increasing market share through a variety of new approaches using new thoughts and ideas as well as tried and proven methods. Critical to the process is that infrastructure and design tools be continually developed to meet new demands.