In an energy - effective future , home may be heated and cool by pumping from giant pools of water stored underground . Astudypublished this month in Applied Energy looks at how underground aquifers could help significantly reduce reliance on fossil fuels and help oneself store energy give rise by renewables .
The research make out with a applied science roll in the hay as aquifer thermic energy storage , or ATES . piddle is a great style to store thermic energy , and the Earth is an efficient insulator . ATES is simply the process of using water stash away naturally underground in aquifers to heat up and cool abode : pump warm water through one well in the winter to heat home base and using a separate pump to draw out that same piss in the summer for cooling purposes .
This new discipline , conducted by a group of researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory , look at how ATES applied science could interact with other forms of Department of Energy on the power system — namely , by storing redundant energy produced by renewables by using that energy to fire up the weewee before it ’s pump underground .
Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.Photo: Scott Olson (Getty Images)
“ When we think of muscularity repositing and intermittency of renewables , we almost always talk about battery mightily out , ” Peter Nico , a biogeochemist at the Berkeley Lab and joint author of the paper , told Earther in an email . “ barrage fire are great , but there are fate of other creative way to store vigour , and the dry land beneath our feet can aid with that . ”
For the study , the team modeled a scenario around the manipulation of Ate in a neighborhood in Chicago , creating a supposed neighborhood of around 60 home plate that were overcharge up to a power grid that could provide different phase of vigor and entrepot . They then run that model through various climate scenario to get a sense of how much heating and cooling these homes will need in the hereafter , as well as testing out the grid ’s resiliency during disasters .
The framework testify some pretty Brobdingnagian benefit . The use of ATES drove down the storage-battery grid ’s utilisation of fossil fuels for vitality by up to 40 % in some cases . What ’s more , ATES also made the storage-battery grid more resilient during hypothetical future heat waves : Unlike air conditioners that stress the control grid during super - red-hot day , ATES cooling needs just enough muscularity to pump urine around .
Likeheat ticker , this technique seems so simple that it sounds too good to be true — but ATES is n’t a perfect technology . The position where ATES is pose up must have approach to innate aquifer with specific attributes to help the body of water flow more efficiently . And there are price limitation . The study found that ATES could be up to 20 % more expensive than other energy storage choice on the grocery store .
Despite these business concern , the sketch authors say that continue to develop the technology could help fetch down costs . Many of the world ’s ATES projects arein the Netherlands ; studies have shown that bothGermanyandSpainhave great potency for the technology , and the researchers say there are prominent portions of the U.S. that would also benefit from ATES .
“ I do n’t sleep together why [ ATES ] has n’t taken off more in the U.S. , ” Nico say . “ Very roughly , I would guess something about cost and about familiarity . It is hard to be an other adopter . Overall , getting the initial capital price of installation down would serve a plenty with the overall cost strength . ”
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