Integrated Cost-effective Large-scale Thermal Energy Storage for Smart District Heating and Cooling
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Summary
Modern DHC systems are a key technology for the energy transition to a green economy, because they enable at a large scale to couple the heat and electricity sector and hence to increase the flexibility of the overall energy system. Large thermal energy storages (TES) in
DHC systems further render possible the integration of high shares of renewable energy sources, to integrate excess electricity from renewable energy systems (RES) and to optimize CHP. The proposed research contributes towards the development of data, information and analysis tools to encourage the use of costeffective large scale underground thermal energy seasonal storage (UTES) in smart district heating and cooling systems.
Large scale thermal energy storage technologies of interest for this international collaboration are aquifer and pit thermal energy
storage (ATES and PTES, see figures). Aquifer and pit thermal energy storages offer cost-effective solutions for large-scale
thermal energy storage applications. Where applicable, these TES types have a significant cost advantage compared to conventional
heat store. Cost levels of less than 50 €/m³ have been reached and are in particular interesting for DHC applications with a low
number of storage cycles (e.g. long-term or seasonal storage of cold or heat).
Deliverables / Outcomes
The main deliverables of this project is the completion of two base case studies:
- York University District Cooling with integrated ambient air-cold aquifer seasonal storage study
- Case study for a district heating system with integrated solar pit seasonal storage for a municipality in a rural area in Germany
- a state-of-the art report on proved concepts, cost data, technology suppliers and experiences from realized projects
Project lead
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan)- CanmetENERGY
1 Haanel Drive
Building 5A
Nepean
Ontario K1A 1M1
Canada
Reda Djebbar, Ph.D., P.Eng
+1 (613) 996-8828
Reda.Djebbar@Canada.ca
Partners
- PlanEnergi - Denmark
- Steinbeis Research Institute for Solar and Sustainable Thermal Energy Systems
(Solites) - Germany - Thermal Energy System Specialists (TESS) - USA
