Comparison Between Different Types of Energy Storage Regarding Their Integration in a PV/ST-GSHP System

Abstract

Solar thermal heaters (STs), photovoltaics (PVs) and ground source heat pumps (GSHPs) are widely used nowadays due to their advantages of environmental protection and energy saving. The combination of solar thermal, photovoltaic and GSHP can achieve an even better performance and such a system is referred to as PV/ST-GSHP in this study. However, renewable energy resources, such as solar energy, have an intermittent nature, and thus it is necessary to use an energy storage system. This paper aimed to have a comparison between different forms of energy storage in a PV/STGSHP system. The capacity of the energy storage in four different systems was optimized by a multi-objective approach, which concerns economic, energy and environmental objectives. The results showed that energy storage can improve the overall performance of the system. In the different forms of energy storage, the integration of thermal and electrical energy storage performed better than other forms of energy storage.