Interseasonal Heat Transfer

Seasonal thermal energy storage (or STES) is the storage of heat or cold for periods of up to several months. The thermal energy can be collected whenever it is available and be used whenever needed, such as in the opposing season. For example, heat from solar collectors or waste heat from air conditioning equipment can be gathered in hot months for space heating use when needed, including during winter months. Waste heat from industrial process can similarly be stored and be used much later. Or the natural cold of winter air can be stored for summertime air conditioning. STES stores can serve district heating systems, as well as single buildings or complexes. Among seasonal storages used for heating, the design peak annual temperatures generally are in the range of 27 to 80 °C (81 to 180 °F), and the temperature difference occurring in the storage over the course of a year can be several tens of degrees. Some systems use a heat pump to help charge and discharge the storage during part or all of the cycle. For cooling applications, often only circulation pumps are used. A less common term for STES technologies is interseasonal thermal energy storage

Examples for district heating include Drake Landing Solar Community where ground storage provides 97% of yearly consumption without heat pumps, and Danish pond storage with boosting.

There are several types of STES technology, covering a range of applications from single small buildings to community district heating networks. Generally, efficiency increases and the specific construction cost decreases with size.

In the Netherlands there are well over 1,000 ATES systems, which are now a standard construction option. A significant system has been operating at Richard Stockton College (New Jersey) for several years. ATES has a lower installation cost than BTES because usually fewer holes are drilled, but ATES has a higher operating cost. Also, ATES requires particular underground conditions to be feasible, including the presence of an aquifer.

The strata can be anything from sand to crystalline hardrock, and depending on engineering factors the depth can be from 50 to 300 metres (164 to 984 ft). Spacings have ranged from 3 to 8 metres (9.8 to 26.2 ft). Thermal models can be used to predict seasonal temperature variation in the ground, including the establishment of a stable temperature regime which is achieved by matching the inputs and outputs of heat over one or more annual cycles. Warm-temperature seasonal heat stores can be created using borehole fields to store surplus heat captured in summer to actively raise the temperature of large thermal banks of soil so that heat can be extracted more easily (and more cheaply) in winter. Interseasonal Heat Transfer uses water circulating in pipes embedded in asphalt solar collectors to transfer heat to Thermal Banks created in borehole fields. A ground source heat pump is used in winter to extract the warmth from the Thermal Bank to provide space heating via underfloor heating. A high Coefficient of Performance is obtained because the heat pump starts with a warm temperature of 25 °C (77 °F) from the thermal store, instead of a cold temperature of 10 °C (50 °F) from the ground. A BTES operating at Richard Stockton College since 1995 at a peak of about 29 °C (84.2 °F) consists of 400 boreholes 130 metres (427 ft) deep under a 3.5-acre (1.4 ha) parking lot. It has a heat loss of 2% over six months. The upper temperature limit for a BTES store is 85 °C (185 °F) due to characteristics of the PEX pipe used for BHEs, but most do not approach that limit. Boreholes can be either grout- or water-filled depending on geological conditions, and usually have a life expectancy in excess of 100 years. Both a BTES and its associated district heating system can be expanded incrementally after operation begins, as at Neckarsulm, Germany. BTES stores generally do not impair use of the land, and can exist under buildings, agricultural fields and parking lots. An example of one of the several kinds of STES illustrates well the capability of interseasonal heat storage. In Alberta, Canada, the homes of the Drake Landing Solar Community (in operation since 2007), get 97% of their year-round heat from a district heat system that is supplied by solar heat from solar-thermal panels on garage roofs. This feat – a world record – is enabled by interseasonal heat storage in a large mass of native rock that is under a central park. The thermal exchange occurs via a cluster of 144 boreholes, drilled 37 metres (121 ft) into the earth. Each borehole is 155 mm (6.1 in) in diameter and contains a simple heat exchanger made of small diameter plastic pipe, through which water is circulated. No heat pumps are involved.

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Wikipedia