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Why are heat pumps not used more, instead of windmills, wave machines, etc?

I heat my swimming pool and house with a heat pump. The Queen has heat pumps at Wndsor Castle. The Royal Festival Hall has heat pumps, working from the River Thames. They all cool the earth (and water) by extracting heat from it. Surely the best way forward to combatting global warming is to COOL it? Why are we faffing about building windmills and ruining our countryside?

Public Comments

1. Heat pumps make better use of energy. They don't generate energy. You will not combat global warming because while one end of a heat pump goes colder, the other gets warmer. The net effect of using them is to use power. Wind turbines are the most practical option at the moment.
2. Some areas of the country (and the world) would require quite deep digging to make it efficient.
3. In theory, heat pumps transport heat from one object to another, especially if it is from a cold object to a hot object. It is an important working theory for appliances like the refrigerator. However, there is a catch: to transport heat from a cold environment to a hot one, work must be done. (According to the second law of thermodynamics, heat cannot spontaneously go to a hot object from a cold object.) This work must be generated from another source of energy, in a refrigerator's case, electrical energy. I believe you must be referring to a heat engine, not a heat pump. A heat engine is a device which converts heat energy to another form of energy, especially mechanical energy, like in cars (diesel engines) or steam boats (steam energy). Yes, they can generate energy that drives cars to drive and stuff, but they need fuels that must be combusted (the heat). Unlike wind or wave turbines that generate electrical energy from something ambient, like wind and waves respectively, heat engines. Wind and wave machines are more cost effective in the long run. They may cost more in construction, but at least they don't need constant refueling like the heat engines. The drawback with these things is, like what you said, they are eyesores. Moreover, the waste materials generated from heat engines contribute to the greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide but also water vapor. The cooling effect is temporary and limited within our homes. Another thing, you cannot just cool the environment. If I may suggest, let these events just happen. The Earth has this very peculiar way of equlibrating conditions, though not that immediate. Hope that helps.