Hydrogeological Report - Geothermal Energy, Air-Water Heat Pump or Ice Storage?

As already mentioned, the additional costs for a deep drilling will probably not be economically worthwhile. Nevertheless, it is the more efficient and less error-prone heating system. And you can cool more cheaply in summer than with an air-water heat pump.

We also live in a water protection area IIIa (Lower Saxony). We were directly prohibited from deep drilling. The local water authority then directed me to near-surface geothermal energy (ring trench collector). However, three quarters of a year later, they did not want to hear anything about it when granting the permit. I would have been allowed to operate the ring trench only with pure water (water hazard class 0). That is not really sensible... therefore, for us it will unfortunately(!) only be an air-water heat pump now. I would have accepted the additional costs, especially for the cheaper cooling in summer... I find it particularly annoying that there are some deep drillings in the immediate vicinity... we were unfortunately two years too late :-/

Nevertheless, it is the more efficient one

Yep.

Less error-prone heating system

Not really. And if a problem occurs, for example with the brine line, then it becomes significantly more expensive than with the air-water heat pump.

And you can cool more cheaply in summer than with an air-water heat pump.

You can't really cool with either.
And anyone building today should deal with a photovoltaic system right from the start. Then cheap cooling won't work either.

Not really. And if a problem occurs, for example with the brine line, it becomes significantly more expensive than with the air-water heat pump.

Yes, that is of course correct. Problems with the brine line are annoying. But in general, an air-water heat pump is much more prone to issues, especially because part of the technology is outdoors all year and exposed to wind and weather.

You can’t really cool with either. And anyone building today should deal directly with a photovoltaic system. Then cheaper cooling is no longer a factor.

Let’s call it "temper" and not "cool" ;-) No matter what we call it, it is cheaper with geothermal energy because only the pump has to run, not the compressor.

Regarding photovoltaics, I absolutely agree with you. I don’t understand how there can still be no obligation for new buildings. But it is still important to look at the energy efficiency of the building. Just because we can cover part of our electricity demand ourselves doesn’t mean we should stop building efficient systems. Every kWh we don’t use ourselves can be used by someone else (e.g., also people who do not have the possibility to install their own photovoltaic system).