Title:

Heating and Cooling with Geothermal Energy - Heat Management in an Experimental Holistic Energy Grid

Authors:

Benedict HOLBEIN, Jörg ISELE, Luigi SPATAFORA, Veit HAGENMEYER

Key Words:

low enthalpy, heat pump, cooling machine, absorption, quality management,

Conference:

Stanford Geothermal Workshop

Year:

2016

Session:

General

Language:

English

Paper Number:

Holbein

File Size:

1460 KB

View File:

Abstract:

Reliable energy supply is one of the major tasks for the future which has to be challenged by science and technology. Considering increasing energy demand and increasing requirements in terms of ecology and climate factors, only holistic concepts can generate satisfactory solutions. Hence Geothermal Energy is supposed to play an important role in the next energy grid. In Germany an advancement of the energy system is already acute, since the departure from nuclear and fossil energy sources is actually happening, including an intense expansion of renewable energies. The stabilization of the power grid is a complex task, not least because of the fluctuating production of important amounts of wind and solar energy. Therefore, among others the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) has the mission to develop solutions for the stable power grid of the future. Within the project: Energy Lab 2.0 simulations and realistic experiments on energy grids, including renewables, power-to-heat solutions, storages and smart information and communication technologies are done. An experimentation field on a smaller scale including all relevant components shall deliver data for the simulation of complete grids. This basic approach shall be applicable to other energy systems, too. At the KIT 16.75 million EUR of the total investment of 22 million are spend for infrastructure. The Institute for Applied Computer Science (IAI) is mainly responsible for a smart energy system simulation and control center including the experimentation field. All too often when discussing energy systems the focus is on electricity, nevertheless in many regions the major part of primary energy consumption in the private and industrial sector passes in form of heat. If the potential of air conditioning with heat is included this amount gets even bigger not to mention the possibility of storing electricity in form of heat. For that reason heat management is an important element in the reflections about the Energy Lab at the IAI. As infrastructure for the experiments several consumption houses, a test hall and different producers and consumers are planned. Especially how geothermal low enthalpy systems can be used to support the grid through compensation of failures and by smoothing the energy balance is an interesting issue. Regarding the overall situation the general features of geothermal energy as a base-load capable renewable energy is taken into account. For the heat management and possible air conditioning demands the direct use of geothermal heat in combination with absorption and compression heat pumps is investigated. Besides the usual living room case, special applications such as cooling of power electronic components and server rooms are regarded scenarios. Though the potential of geothermal energy as part of the energy system is undoubted, its exploitation is still a difficult topic in terms of acceptance and economic efficiency. That is why the ZWERG project at the KIT is concerned with a complimentary system platform for the development of down-hole tools for investigation, sampling and repair. One basic problem on which technical solutions must be established is the combination of high ambient temperatures in geothermal wells and the usage of electronics with high variety and performance. The usability of standard electronics, enabled by active cooling would be a key advantage for this problem, hence down-hole cooling systems is a priority development target. In favor of a scientific benefit analogies between both described research subjects are identified and applied.


ec2-34-201-37-128.compute-1.amazonaws.com, you have accessed 0 records today.

Press the Back button in your browser, or search again.

Copyright 2016, Stanford Geothermal Program: Readers who download papers from this site should honor the copyright of the original authors and may not copy or distribute the work further without the permission of the original publisher.


Attend the nwxt Stanford Geothermal Workshop, click here for details.

Accessed by: ec2-34-201-37-128.compute-1.amazonaws.com (34.201.37.128)
Accessed: Thursday 28th of March 2024 09:53:53 AM