Open loop systems refer to another type of geothermal system where water is pumped out of the ground, run, through the geothermal heat pump, and then dumped back into a nearby body of water (like ...

Lessard describes geothermal ... a less common open-loop system that circulates surface water or water from a well through the system and returns it to the ground through a discharge pipe.

In these conventional “hydrothermal geothermal” installations, open loop wells (drilled wells that contain circulating water) were drilled to the natural reservoirs of high heat below the surface.