De-icing systems have a considerable market volume in Germany. According to Zion Market Research [1], it had a volume of around 490 million euros in 2023 and is expected to reach a volume of around 580 million euros by 2026. With regard to the end user, commercial applications (227 million euros/year) are the most important market, followed by municipal and residential applications, both of which are around the same order of magnitude of around 100 million euros/year (2020). In terms of application, the entire industry is categorized into driveways/ramps, roofs, wooddeck, paving, parking lots, runways, sports facilities and other applications. Here, the driveways/ramps sector has the largest market share, followed by parking spaces and paving. The other sectors are all more or less of the same order of magnitude. Most of these systems are heated conventionally, a significant proportion of them with electricity via electrical resistance heaters [2]. Geothermal energy is a solution to significantly reduce emissions and avoid peak loads in the power grid. In the GERDI joint project, such a heating system was developed based on prefabricated concrete elements, which can be heated exclusively by shallow geothermal energy . The principle of the two-phase thermosyphon is used, which is purely thermally driven and uses the temperature difference between the borhole and the surface. This article summarizes the main results of the project and presents measurement results from the demonstrator built in Bad Wurzach by BauGrundSüd in 2023.
[1] GERMANY SNOW MELTING SYSTEM MARKET 2022, ZION Market Research
[2] M. Würtele, P. Sprinke, W. Eugster, Geothermie sorgt für Verkehrssicherheit, Studie im Auftrag des Ministeriums für Verkehr Energie und Landesplanung des Landes Nordrheinwestfalen, Düsseldorf 2005