Heat losses in ATES systems: The impact of processes, storage geometry and temperature

The technical and economic success of an Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) system depends strongly on its thermal recovery efficiency, i.e. the ratio of the amount of energy that is recovered to the energy that was injected. Typically, conduction most strongly determines the thermal recovery efficiency of ATES systems at low storage...

Improving the Efficiency of District Heating and Cooling Using a Geothermal Technology: Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES)

For efficient operation of heating and cooling grids, underground thermal energy storage (UTES) can be a key element. This is due to its ability to seasonally store heat or cold addressing the large mismatch between supply and demand. This technology is already available and there are many operational examples, both within and outside a...

Quantifying the contribution of heat recharge from confining layers to geothermal resources

Geothermal operations are expanding and increasingly contributing to the current energy supply. Assessing the long-term operable lifetime of these projects is complicated as the reservoirs they produce from are often deep and subsurface properties are uncertain and spatially variable. The minimum lifetime of a geothermal project usually...

Towards Sustainable Heat Supply with Decentralized Multi-Energy Systems by Integration of Subsurface Seasonal Heat Storage

In the energy transition, multi-energy systems are crucial to reduce the temporal, spatial and functional mismatch between sustainable energy supply and demand. Technologies as power-to-heat (PtH) allow flexible and effective utilisation of available surplus green electricity when integrated with seasonal heat storage options. However, insights...

Increasing market opportunities for renewable energy technologies with innovations in aquifer thermal energy storage

Heating and cooling using aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) has hardly been applied outside the Netherlands, even though it could make a valuable contribution to the energy transition. The Climate-KIC project “Europe-wide Use of Energy from aquifers” – E-USE(aq) – aimed to pave the way for Europe-wide application of ATES, through the...

Novel combinations of aquifer thermal energy storage with solar collectors, soil remediation and other types of geothermal energy systems

Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) system make use of the groundwater to exchange energy with the building: in winter, groundwater is pumped from the warm well to the buildings heat exchanger and the building extracts heat from the groundwater as energy source for the heat pumps, while the groundwater will be injected in the cold well at...

Ates Smart Grids: Optimal Use Of Subsurface Space In High Density Ates Areas

Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) systems provide buildings with sustainable space heating and cooling by seasonally storing and recovering thermal energy in the subsurface. The increased use of ATES in Dutch cities resulted in dense use of ATES in urban aquifers, often up to congestion level. Because thermal interactions among neighbouring...

Low carbon heating and cooling by combining various technologies with Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage

A transition to a low carbon energy system is needed to respond to global challenge of climate change mitigation. Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) is a technology with worldwide potential to provide sustainable space heating and cooling by (seasonal) storage and recovery of heat in the subsurface. However, adoption of ATES varies strongly...