Seasonal Energy Flexibility Through Integration of Liquid Sorption Storage in Buildings

Luca Baldini and Benjamin Fumey
Additional contact information
Luca Baldini: Empa–Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, 8600 Dubendorf, Switzerland
Benjamin Fumey: Empa–Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, 8600 Dubendorf, Switzerland

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 11, 1-13

Abstract: The article estimates energy flexibility provided to the electricity grid by integration of long-term thermal energy storage in buildings. To this end, a liquid sorption storage combined with a compression heat pump is studied for a single-family home. This combination acts as a double-stage heat pump comprised of a thermal and an electrical stage. It lowers the temperature lift to be overcome by the electrical heat pump and thus increases its coefficient of performance. A simplified model is used to quantify seasonal energy flexibility by means of electric load shifting evaluated with a monthly resolution. Results are presented for unlimited and limited storage capacity leading to a total seasonal electric load shift of 631.8 kWh/a and 181.7 kWh/a, respectively. This shift, referred to as virtual battery effect, provided through long-term thermal energy storage is large compared to typical electric battery capacities installed in buildings. This highlights the significance of building-integrated long-term thermal energy storage for provision of energy flexibility to the electricity grid and hence for the integration of renewables in our energy system.

Keywords: long-term thermal energy storage; seasonal thermal energy storage; thermochemical energy storage; liquid sorption storage; power-to-heat; seasonal energy flexibility; seasonal load shifting; virtual battery effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/11/2944/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/11/2944/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:11:p:2944-:d:368909

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().