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Technologies for geothermal to enhance competitiveness in smart and flexible operation

Descripción del proyecto

Energía geotérmica flexible y rentable

Las energías renovables como el sol y el viento aumentan la incertidumbre y la variabilidad en la generación y el suministro de energía a los consumidores. Las centrales geotérmicas pueden ayudar a equilibrar las fluctuaciones al funcionar de un modo más flexible para responder a cambios repentinos en el consumo de energía. El proyecto GeoSmart, financiado con fondos europeos, trabaja en el desarrollo de métodos para almacenar energía térmica cuando la demanda es baja, de modo que pueda ser descargada cuando la demanda sea alta. También planea crear un sistema de refrigeración híbrido para una central de ciclo orgánico de Rankine que prevendrá la pérdida de eficacia como resultado de cambios estacionales. En conjunto, las tecnologías de GeoSmart permitirán que las centrales geotérmicas respondan de manera rentable a las diferentes demandas de calor y electricidad.

Objetivo

Future energy systems will face serious operational challenges with system reliability due to fluctuations caused by progressive integration of solar and wind power. Reliable and sustainable energy sources that can be utilized in large parts of Europe and that are able to balance these fluctuations are needed. Geothermal energy has the potential to become an excellent source for both base and flexible energy demands, providing much lower environmental footprint than both fossil and biomass fuels, as well as much less risks and societal resistance than nuclear power.

There are however some techno-economic challenges which needs to be addressed to facilitate highly flexible operation of geothermal power plants. In GeoSmart, we propose to combine thermal energy storages with flexible ORC solutions to provide a highly flexible operational capability of a geothermal installation. During periods with low demand, energy will be stored in the storage to be released at a later stage when the demand is higher. As this approach does not influence the flow condition at the wellhead, critical infrastructures will be unaffected under variable energy generation. To improve efficiency, we also propose a hybrid cooling system for the ORC plant to prevent efficiency degradation due to seasonal variations. Efficiency will be further improved by larger power plant heat extraction enabled due to a scaling reduction system consisting of specially design retention tank, heat exchanger, and recombining with extracted gases. The scaling reduction system has the potential to almost double power production of many medium enthalpy geothermal plants. Overall, GeoSmart technologies will drastically reduce geothermal energy costs, making it cost competitive with its fossil fuel-based counterparts.
To bring GeoSmart technology to TRL7/8, we will demonstrate it in a medium/high (Turkey) and low (Belgium) temperature fields to show its potential benefits and applicability in different settings.

Convocatoria de propuestas

H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020

Consulte otros proyectos de esta convocatoria

Convocatoria de subcontratación

H2020-LC-SC3-2018-RES-SingleStage

Régimen de financiación

IA - Innovation action

Coordinador

TWI LIMITED
Aportación neta de la UEn
€ 3 818 330,00
Dirección
GRANTA PARK GREAT ABINGTON
CB21 6AL Cambridge
Reino Unido

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Región
East of England East Anglia Cambridgeshire CC
Tipo de actividad
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Enlaces
Coste total
€ 4 440 490,00

Participantes (23)