Modelling the Energy Production of a Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) System

Jessica Maria Chicco and Giuseppe Mandrone
Additional contact information
Jessica Maria Chicco: Interuniversity Department of Regional, and Urban Studies, and Planning (DIST), University of Turin, 10125 Torino, Italy
Giuseppe Mandrone: Interuniversity Department of Regional, and Urban Studies, and Planning (DIST), University of Turin, 10125 Torino, Italy

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 24, 1-18

Abstract: Geopolitical developments since February 2022 and the numerous debates on climate change such as the COP27 are pushing for a greater acceleration in decarbonising the energy sector. The use of geothermal energy for thermal energy production and storage in district heating and cooling (DHC) grids may also be a key element in overcoming short-term energy peaks. This work aimed at evaluating the efficiency and performance of one of the most promising underground thermal energy storage systems, which uses boreholes to store heat or cold (BTES). Numerical simulations allowed for understanding how these technologies can be used as backup systems, or when the energy demand overcomes that supplied by conventional heating systems. The knowledge on how to exploit this energy source shows that a continuous heat extraction from the storage volume can meet both the base and peak load requests for several users, with cumulative energy amounting to 476,000 kWh over the first month. This study proved how the integration of these technologies in DHC contexts can contribute to greater energy and economic savings, becoming an efficient and flexible solution to meet the energy demand from the grid, and also as a backup system.

Keywords: district heating; thermal energy storage; geothermal energy; numerical simulation (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: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/24/9587/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/24/9587/ (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:15:y:2022:i:24:p:9587-:d:1006424

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 ().