Solar district heating with underground thermal energy storage: Pathways to commercial viability in North America

RENEWABLE ENERGY

卷:126

Article

Reed, A. L.¹  Novelli, A. P.²  Doran, K. L.³  Ge, S.⁴  Lu, N.⁵  McCartney, J. S.⁶ 

[1] Univer Colorado Boulder, RASEI, Boulder, CO USA

[2] Washington Univ St Louis, Olin Sch Business, St Louis, MO USA

[3] Univ Colorado Boulder, RASEI, Boulder, CO USA

[4] Univ Colorado Boulder, Geol Sci, Boulder, CO USA

[5] Colorado Sch Mines Civil & Environm Engn, Golden, CO USA

[6] Univ Calif San Diego, Struct Engn, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA

关键词: Solar thermal energy;    Solar district heating;    Underground thermal energy storage;    Borehole thermal energy storage;    Financial viability;    Risk mitigation;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.renene.2018.03.019

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES) has emerged in both specific applications and within energy policy literature as a promising technology for meeting thermal loads with locally collected and stored solar energy, as well as several other potential applications, such as time-shifting of grid-based wind and solar power to better align variable generation with loads. In Europe, UTES systems have experienced increased deployment in connection with district heating systems. But despite this academic attention and several demonstration projects, the commercial market viability of UTES systems has yet to be established in North America, and the finance world uses different conceptions of viability than engineering or academic studies. This study explores, through the conventions of finance and risk mitigation, what capital costs North American UTES systems would need to exhibit to achieve market viability; which is to say, the investment cost at which a UTES system represents an attractive investment when compared with natural gas-based systems for the provision of residential space heating. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

【 授权许可】

Free