With solar hot water collection and bore hole technology you can omitt a heat-pump all together and just use the stored heat energy directly.
You can all relax, All the studies have been done. Its proven technology. Its been functional since 2007 and its providing 90% of the annual heat load. In a cold harsh climate.
Hey you can't knock that kind of success.
The method:
Solar hot water is collected (nothing fancy here just flat plate collectors)during the sumer and pumped into a Bore Hole field.
The surrounding rocks and soil are heated to a near max of 80 Deg. C.
The heat is then returned to the buildings during the winter supplying 90% of their heating requirments.
You should check-out the site it has a interactive display of current operational information real-time.
http://www.dlsc.ca/index.htm
Randen