Seasonal thermal energy storage system for cold climate zones: A review of recent developments

Abstract

A number of seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) systems have been deployed for heating in cold climate zones due to potential utilisation of solar energy. It overcomes the drawback on intermittency of solar energy and contributes to storing heat from summer to be used in winter. Heat pump and solar collectors with low-temperature storage are the influencing factors to improve the system performance. This paper investigates STES systems integrated with heat pump and solar collectors for heating applications in cold climate zones based on the current available literature. Furthermore, various simulation models and software tools related to STES system were reviewed. This study discusses potential STES systems for space heating system in cold climate zones based on various parameters such as heating demand, climate conditions, and availability of solar resources, storage temperature, energy efficiency, and life cycle cost (LCC). A simple calculation method was applied to demonstrate the potential contribution of different STES options. The double U-tube borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) integrated with ground coupled heat pump (GCHP) and evacuated tube solar collector (ETSC) system was found to be most appropriate for space heating in cold climate zones. The analysis indicated that the system could have higher overall energy efficiency than the traditional space heating systems. Furthermore, a decision support flow chart was presented based on STES options.