IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v13y2020i8p1918-d345288.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coarse-Grained Model of Underground Thermal Energy Storage Applied to Efficiency Optimization

Author

Listed:
  • Anders E. Carlsson

    (Department of Physics, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA)

Abstract

Seasonal storage of thermal energy, by pumping heated water through a borehole array in the summer, and reversing the water flow to extract heat in the winter, can ameliorate some of the intermittency of renewable energy sources. Simulation can be a valuable tool in enhancing the efficiency of such storage systems. This paper develops a simple, efficient mathematical model of spatial temperature dynamics that focuses on the radial water flow in a cylindrical borehole array. The model calculates the time course of the temperature difference between outgoing and incoming water accurately, and allows new optimization strategies to be explored easily. A strategy based on discharging water heated by the array before it reaches the array center can increase the storage capacity by 25% for a system with a 20% smaller radius than the well-studied Drake Landing system. If the density of boreholes is also doubled, the improvement is 29%.

Suggested Citation

  • Anders E. Carlsson, 2020. "Coarse-Grained Model of Underground Thermal Energy Storage Applied to Efficiency Optimization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-20, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:8:p:1918-:d:345288
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/8/1918/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/8/1918/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rad, Farzin M. & Fung, Alan S., 2016. "Solar community heating and cooling system with borehole thermal energy storage – Review of systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 1550-1561.
    2. Reed, A.L. & Novelli, A.P. & Doran, K.L. & Ge, S. & Lu, N. & McCartney, J.S., 2018. "Solar district heating with underground thermal energy storage: Pathways to commercial viability in North America," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 1-13.
    3. Michael Lanahan & Paulo Cesar Tabares-Velasco, 2017. "Seasonal Thermal-Energy Storage: A Critical Review on BTES Systems, Modeling, and System Design for Higher System Efficiency," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-24, May.
    4. Zhang, Liang & Xu, Peng & Mao, Jiachen & Tang, Xu & Li, Zhengwei & Shi, Jianguo, 2015. "A low cost seasonal solar soil heat storage system for greenhouse heating: Design and pilot study," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 213-222.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dahash, Abdulrahman & Ochs, Fabian & Janetti, Michele Bianchi & Streicher, Wolfgang, 2019. "Advances in seasonal thermal energy storage for solar district heating applications: A critical review on large-scale hot-water tank and pit thermal energy storage systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 239(C), pages 296-315.
    2. Abokersh, Mohamed Hany & Vallès, Manel & Cabeza, Luisa F. & Boer, Dieter, 2020. "A framework for the optimal integration of solar assisted district heating in different urban sized communities: A robust machine learning approach incorporating global sensitivity analysis," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 267(C).
    3. Rehman, Hassam ur & Hirvonen, Janne & Sirén, Kai, 2018. "Performance comparison between optimized design of a centralized and semi-decentralized community size solar district heating system," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 229(C), pages 1072-1094.
    4. Saloux, Etienne & Candanedo, José A., 2021. "Model-based predictive control to minimize primary energy use in a solar district heating system with seasonal thermal energy storage," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 291(C).
    5. Karolina Dec & Elżbieta Broniewicz & Mirosław Broniewicz, 2020. "The Possibility Analysis of Adapting a Public Building to the Standard of a Building with a Zero Energy Balance," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-18, December.
    6. Rotta Loria, Alessandro F., 2021. "The thermal energy storage potential of underground tunnels used as heat exchangers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 214-227.
    7. Guo, Fang & Zhu, Xiaoyue & Zhang, Junyue & Yang, Xudong, 2020. "Large-scale living laboratory of seasonal borehole thermal energy storage system for urban district heating," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    8. Bott, Christoph & Dressel, Ingo & Bayer, Peter, 2019. "State-of-technology review of water-based closed seasonal thermal energy storage systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 1-1.
    9. Lyden, A. & Brown, C.S. & Kolo, I. & Falcone, G. & Friedrich, D., 2022. "Seasonal thermal energy storage in smart energy systems: District-level applications and modelling approaches," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    10. Jodeiri, A.M. & Goldsworthy, M.J. & Buffa, S. & Cozzini, M., 2022. "Role of sustainable heat sources in transition towards fourth generation district heating – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    11. Hemmatabady, Hoofar & Welsch, Bastian & Formhals, Julian & Sass, Ingo, 2022. "AI-based enviro-economic optimization of solar-coupled and standalone geothermal systems for heating and cooling," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 311(C).
    12. Antonio Rosato & Antonio Ciervo & Giovanni Ciampi & Michelangelo Scorpio & Sergio Sibilio, 2020. "Integration of Micro-Cogeneration Units and Electric Storages into a Micro-Scale Residential Solar District Heating System Operating with a Seasonal Thermal Storage," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-40, October.
    13. Behzadi, Amirmohammad & Holmberg, Sture & Duwig, Christophe & Haghighat, Fariborz & Ooka, Ryozo & Sadrizadeh, Sasan, 2022. "Smart design and control of thermal energy storage in low-temperature heating and high-temperature cooling systems: A comprehensive review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    14. Braungardt, Sibylle & Bürger, Veit & Zieger, Jana & Bosselaar, Lex, 2019. "How to include cooling in the EU Renewable Energy Directive? Strategies and policy implications," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 129(C), pages 260-267.
    15. Félix Ruiz-Calvo & Carla Montagud & Antonio Cazorla-Marín & José M. Corberán, 2017. "Development and Experimental Validation of a TRNSYS Dynamic Tool for Design and Energy Optimization of Ground Source Heat Pump Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-21, September.
    16. Ciampi, Giovanni & Rosato, Antonio & Sibilio, Sergio, 2018. "Thermo-economic sensitivity analysis by dynamic simulations of a small Italian solar district heating system with a seasonal borehole thermal energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 757-771.
    17. Moss, R.W. & Henshall, P. & Arya, F. & Shire, G.S.F. & Hyde, T. & Eames, P.C., 2018. "Performance and operational effectiveness of evacuated flat plate solar collectors compared with conventional thermal, PVT and PV panels," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 216(C), pages 588-601.
    18. Joshua M. Pearce & Nelson Sommerfeldt, 2021. "Economics of Grid-Tied Solar Photovoltaic Systems Coupled to Heat Pumps: The Case of Northern Climates of the U.S. and Canada," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(4), pages 1-17, February.
    19. Kai Stricker & Jens C. Grimmer & Robert Egert & Judith Bremer & Maziar Gholami Korzani & Eva Schill & Thomas Kohl, 2020. "The Potential of Depleted Oil Reservoirs for High-Temperature Storage Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-26, December.
    20. Giordano, Nicolò & Raymond, Jasmin, 2019. "Alternative and sustainable heat production for drinking water needs in a subarctic climate (Nunavik, Canada): Borehole thermal energy storage to reduce fossil fuel dependency in off-grid communities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:8:p:1918-:d:345288. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.