Principles of underground energy storage

What is underground thermal energy storage?

Part of the book series: Green Energy and Technology (GREEN) Underground thermal energy storage (UTES) provide us with a flexible tool to combat global warming through conserving energy while utilizing natural renewable energy resources. Primarily, they act as a buffer to balance fluctuations in supply and demand of low temperature thermal energy.

What are the five underground large-scale energy storage technologies?

In this work, the characteristics, key scientific problems and engineering challenges of five underground large-scale energy storage technologies are discussed and summarized, including underground oil and gas storage, compressed air storage, hydrogen storage, carbon storage, and pumped storage.

Why is deep underground energy storage important?

It is an effective way to implement SPRs, natural gas peak shaving, a sustainable supply of renewable energy, and the large-scale and efficient utilization of hydrogen. The development of deep underground energy storage is a key issue in achieving carbon neutrality and upgrading China’s energy structure.

Why is the underground a good place to store thermal energy?

The underground is suitable for thermal energy storage because it has high thermal inertia, i.e. if undisturbed below 10-15 m depth, the ground temperature is weakly affected by local above ground climate variations and maintains a stable temperature [76, 77, 78].

What are geotechnical criteria for underground energy storage?

4.1.6. Geotechnical criteria Geotechnical criteria are related to the construction phase of underground energy storage and include thermal and mechanical rock properties, usually requiring in situ tests to assess the cavern stability.

What is Utes (underground thermal energy storage)?

There are also combinations in which the storage is used for both short-term and seasonal storage. There are a number of such technologies summarized by the acronym UTES (Underground Thermal Energy Storage). 30 years within the framework of IEA (International Energy Agency).