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Technologies for geothermal to enhance competitiveness in smart and flexible operation

Description du projet

L’énergie géothermique devient flexible et rentable

Les énergies renouvelables telles que le solaire et l’éolien font augmenter l’incertitude et la variabilité en matière de production et d’approvisionnement des consommateurs en électricité. Les centrales géothermiques peuvent aider à équilibrer ces fluctuations grâce à un mode de fonctionnement plus souple permettant de réagir aux variations soudaines de la consommation d’énergie. Le projet GeoSmart, financé par l’UE, travaille sur des méthodes de stockage de l’énergie thermique lorsque la demande est faible pour l’utiliser lors des pics de demande. Le projet prévoit également la création d’un système de refroidissement hybride pour l’usine à cycle de Rankine à caloporteur organique qui évitera toute dégradation du rendement due aux variations saisonnières. Dans l’ensemble, les technologies GeoSmart permettront aux centrales géothermiques de répondre de façon rentable aux différentes demandes en chauffage et en électricité.

Objectif

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.

Appel à propositions

H2020-LC-SC3-2018-2019-2020

Voir d’autres projets de cet appel

Sous appel

H2020-LC-SC3-2018-RES-SingleStage

Régime de financement

IA - Innovation action

Coordinateur

TWI LIMITED
Contribution nette de l'UE
€ 3 818 330,00
Adresse
GRANTA PARK GREAT ABINGTON
CB21 6AL Cambridge
Royaume-Uni

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Région
East of England East Anglia Cambridgeshire CC
Type d’activité
Private for-profit entities (excluding Higher or Secondary Education Establishments)
Liens
Coût total
€ 4 440 490,00

Participants (23)