Short-cycle borehole thermal energy storage: Impact of thermal cycle duration on overall performance

Abstract

Borehole thermal energy storage arrays are a common form of seasonal underground energy storage which relies on the thermal mass of subsurface rock or sediment to store hot or cold thermal energy. However in practice, typical seasonal operation seldom leads to cyclic energy recovery factors greater than 50%–60% due to significant thermal losses during prolonged periods between consecutive charges. In this paper, the impact of short cycle operation (down to a few days) on energy recovery and overall performance is investigated. Analytical and numerical models are used to estimate energy recovery as a function of cycle length for a typical array and for two distinct charging and discharging scenarios (constant temperature or thermal charge load), which is novel and has not been done before. The results show that shorter cycle duration yields increased recovery factors and storage capacity, which is ascribed to a greater rate of charge to rate of thermal loss ratio. In particular, short-cycle operation at the scale of days unlocks recovery factors in excess of 85 %. The results, supported by a numerical subsurface analysis of the temperature distribution, also show that the recovery efficiency increases with time as losses approach, but never fully reach, a steady-state.