U.S. Geothermal Heat Pump Siting Regulation and Zoning Ordinances (2026)
A machine-readable collection of documented state and local ordinances governing geothermal heat pumps (GHPs), ground-source heat pumps, and related geothermal exchange wells and loop systems throughout the United States. The data were compiled using the Infrastructure Continuous Ordinance Mapping for Planning and Siting Systems (INFRA-COMPASS) tool, which leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to identify and extract explicit ordinance requirements, including setbacks, well depths, definitions, licensing and certification, permitting, inspection, decommissioning, and prohibitions. Extracted records include supporting ordinance excerpts and section references where available. URLs for the source documents are included in the accompanying spreadsheet.
The ordinance GeoPackage file included below contains the jurisdiction shapes for each ordinance. Note that the ordinance GeoPackage file is formatted for ingestion by NLR's reVX setbacks tool and therefore does not contain any of the state-level regulations.
A list of all jurisdictions searched during this collection is provided in CSV and GeoPackage format.
**NOTE**: This data was collected with the help of generative AI. The Large Language Models used for this effort make mistakes. Always validate the data for critical use cases.
INFRA-COMPASS version used for collection: v0.22.0
LLMs used for collection: OpenAI GPT-4.1-mini (document/content filter), OpenAI GPT-5-mini (document/content filter), OpenAI GPT-5.4 (value extraction)
Citation Formats
TY - DATA
AB - A machine-readable collection of documented state and local ordinances governing geothermal heat pumps (GHPs), ground-source heat pumps, and related geothermal exchange wells and loop systems throughout the United States. The data were compiled using the Infrastructure Continuous Ordinance Mapping for Planning and Siting Systems (INFRA-COMPASS) tool, which leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to identify and extract explicit ordinance requirements, including setbacks, well depths, definitions, licensing and certification, permitting, inspection, decommissioning, and prohibitions. Extracted records include supporting ordinance excerpts and section references where available. URLs for the source documents are included in the accompanying spreadsheet.
The ordinance GeoPackage file included below contains the jurisdiction shapes for each ordinance. Note that the ordinance GeoPackage file is formatted for ingestion by NLR's reVX setbacks tool and therefore does not contain any of the state-level regulations.
A list of all jurisdictions searched during this collection is provided in CSV and GeoPackage format.
**NOTE**: This data was collected with the help of generative AI. The Large Language Models used for this effort make mistakes. Always validate the data for critical use cases.
INFRA-COMPASS version used for collection: v0.22.0
LLMs used for collection: OpenAI GPT-4.1-mini (document/content filter), OpenAI GPT-5-mini (document/content filter), OpenAI GPT-5.4 (value extraction)
AU - Pinchuk, Paul
A2 - Rivard, Tim
A3 - Barrons, Jacob
A4 - Frey, Julianne
A5 - Sitler, Aidan
A6 - Sky, Haiku
A7 - Levine, Aaron
DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI)
DP - Open EI | National Laboratory of the Rockies
DO -
KW - Geothermal
KW - Heat
KW - Pump
KW - Exchange
KW - Geo-exchange
KW - Heating
KW - Cooling
KW - Well
KW - Closed Loop
KW - Open Loop
KW - Horizontal Loop
KW - Vertical Loop
KW - Ordinance
KW - Regulation
KW - Setback
KW - Noise
KW - Permitting
KW - AI
KW - LLM
KW - COMPASS
KW - INFRA-COMPASS
KW - machine readable
LA - English
DA - 2026/09/21
PY - 2026
PB - National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR)
T1 - U.S. Geothermal Heat Pump Siting Regulation and Zoning Ordinances (2026)
UR - https://data.openei.org/submissions/8779
ER -
Pinchuk, Paul, et al. U.S. Geothermal Heat Pump Siting Regulation and Zoning Ordinances (2026). National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), 21 September, 2026, Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://data.openei.org/submissions/8779.
Pinchuk, P., Rivard, T., Barrons, J., Frey, J., Sitler, A., Sky, H., & Levine, A. (2026). U.S. Geothermal Heat Pump Siting Regulation and Zoning Ordinances (2026). [Data set]. Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR). https://data.openei.org/submissions/8779
Pinchuk, Paul, Tim Rivard, Jacob Barrons, Julianne Frey, Aidan Sitler, Haiku Sky, and Aaron Levine. U.S. Geothermal Heat Pump Siting Regulation and Zoning Ordinances (2026). National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), September, 21, 2026. Distributed by Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). https://data.openei.org/submissions/8779
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_8779,
title = {U.S. Geothermal Heat Pump Siting Regulation and Zoning Ordinances (2026)},
author = {Pinchuk, Paul and Rivard, Tim and Barrons, Jacob and Frey, Julianne and Sitler, Aidan and Sky, Haiku and Levine, Aaron},
abstractNote = {A machine-readable collection of documented state and local ordinances governing geothermal heat pumps (GHPs), ground-source heat pumps, and related geothermal exchange wells and loop systems throughout the United States. The data were compiled using the Infrastructure Continuous Ordinance Mapping for Planning and Siting Systems (INFRA-COMPASS) tool, which leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to identify and extract explicit ordinance requirements, including setbacks, well depths, definitions, licensing and certification, permitting, inspection, decommissioning, and prohibitions. Extracted records include supporting ordinance excerpts and section references where available. URLs for the source documents are included in the accompanying spreadsheet.
The ordinance GeoPackage file included below contains the jurisdiction shapes for each ordinance. Note that the ordinance GeoPackage file is formatted for ingestion by NLR's reVX setbacks tool and therefore does not contain any of the state-level regulations.
A list of all jurisdictions searched during this collection is provided in CSV and GeoPackage format.
**NOTE**: This data was collected with the help of generative AI. The Large Language Models used for this effort make mistakes. Always validate the data for critical use cases.
INFRA-COMPASS version used for collection: v0.22.0
LLMs used for collection: OpenAI GPT-4.1-mini (document/content filter), OpenAI GPT-5-mini (document/content filter), OpenAI GPT-5.4 (value extraction)
},
url = {https://data.openei.org/submissions/8779},
year = {2026},
howpublished = {Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI), National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR), https://data.openei.org/submissions/8779},
note = {Accessed: 2026-09-23}
}
Details
Data from Sep 21, 2026
Last updated Sep 22, 2026
Submitted Sep 22, 2026
Organization
National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR)
Contact
NLR COMPASS Teeam
Authors
Research Areas
Keywords
Geothermal, Heat, Pump, Exchange, Geo-exchange, Heating, Cooling, Well, Closed Loop, Open Loop, Horizontal Loop, Vertical Loop, Ordinance, Regulation, Setback, Noise, Permitting, AI, LLM, COMPASS, INFRA-COMPASS, machine readableDOE Project Details
Project Name Mapping State and Local Ordinances and Codes Applicable to Environmental Reviews and Permitting of Energy Infrastructure
Project Number 54020
