scholarly journals The GRETA project: the contribution of near-surface geothermal energy for the energetic self-sufficiency of Alpine regions

Author(s):  
Alessandro Casasso ◽  
Bruno Piga ◽  
Rajandrea Sethi ◽  
Joerg Prestor ◽  
Simona Pestotnik ◽  
...  

The Alpine regions are deeply involved in the challenge set by climate change, which is a threat for their environment and for important economic activities such as tourism. The heating and cooling of buildings account for a major share of the total primary energy consumption in Europe, and hence the energy policies should focus on this sector to achieve the greenhouse gas reduction targets set by international agreements. Geothermal heat pump is one of the least carbon-intensive technologies for the heating and cooling of buildings. It exploits the heat stored within the ground, a local renewable energy source which is widely available across the Alpine territory. Nevertheless, it has been little considered by European policies and cooperation projects. GRETA (near-surface Geothermal REsources in the Territory of the Alpine space) is a cooperation project funded by the EU INTERREG-Alpine Space program, aiming at demonstrating the potential of shallow geothermal energy and to foster its integration into energy planning instruments. It started in December 2015 and will last three years, involving 12 partners from Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia. In this paper, the project is presented, along with the results of the first year of work.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 2691
Author(s):  
Nataša Ćuković Ignjatović ◽  
Ana Vranješ ◽  
Dušan Ignjatović ◽  
Dejan Milenić ◽  
Olivera Krunić

The study presented in this paper assessed the multidisciplinary approach of geothermal potential in the area of the most southeastern part of the Pannonian basin, focused on resources utilization. This study aims to present a method for the cascade use of geothermal energy as a source of thermal energy for space heating and cooling and as a resource for balneological purposes. Two particular sites were selected—one in a natural environment; the other within a small settlement. Geothermal resources come from different types of reservoirs having different temperatures and chemical compositions. At the first site, a geothermal spring with a temperature of 20.5 °C is considered for heat pump utilization, while at the second site, a geothermal well with a temperature of 54 °C is suitable for direct use. The calculated thermal power, which can be obtained from geothermal energy is in the range of 300 to 950 kW. The development concept was proposed with an architectural design to enable sustainable energy efficient development of wellness and spa/medical facilities that can be supported by local authorities. The resulting energy heating needs for different scenarios were 16–105 kW, which can be met in full by the use of geothermal energy.


Author(s):  
Ahmed Chowdhury ◽  
Lakshmi Narasimhon Athinarayana Venkatanarasimhan ◽  
Chiradeep Sen

Abstract Modern design problems often require multi-modal, reconfigurable solutions. Function modeling is a common tool used to explore solutions in early mechanical design. Currently, function modeling formalisms minimally support the modeling of multi-modal systems in a formal manner. There is a need in function modeling to capture multi-modal system and analyze the effects of control signals and status signals on their operating modes. This paper presents the concept of functional conjugacy, where two function verbs or functional subgraphs are topological opposites of each other. The paper presents a formal representation of these conjugate verbs that formally captures the transition from one mode of operation to its topological opposite based on the existence of, or the value of, signal flows. Additionally, this paper extends functional conjugacy to functional features, which supports conjugacy-based reasoning at a higher level of abstraction. Through the example of a system-level function model of a geothermal heat pump operating in its heating and cooling modes, this paper demonstrates the ability to support modal reasoning on function models using functional conjugacy and illustrates the modeling efficacy of the extended representation.


2016 ◽  
Vol 77 ◽  
pp. 06008
Author(s):  
G.P. Vasilyev ◽  
V.F. Gornov ◽  
M.V. Kolesova ◽  
A.N. Dmitriev ◽  
V.G. Silaeva

Smart Cities ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 362-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasileios Sougkakis ◽  
Konstantinos Lymperopoulos ◽  
Nikos Nikolopoulos ◽  
Nikolaos Margaritis ◽  
Paraskevi Giourka ◽  
...  

Near Zero Energy and Positive Energy communities are expected to play a significant part in EU’s strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Within this context, the work presented in this paper aims to investigate the feasibility of: (a) a new-built positive energy neighborhood; and (b) the retrofit of an existing neighborhood to near zero energy performance in the city of Alexandroupolis, Greece. Proposed measures involve the rollout at the community scale of renewable energy technologies (PV, geothermal heat pump), energy efficiency (fabric insulation, district heating and cooling networks) and storage systems (batteries). A parametric analysis is conducted to identify the optimum combination of technologies through suitable technical and financial criteria. Results indicate that zero and near zero emissions targets are met with various combinations that impose insulation levels, according to building regulations or slightly higher, and consider renewable energy production with an autonomy of half or, more commonly, one day. In addition, the advantages of performing nearly zero energy retrofit at the district, rather than the building level, are highlighted, in an attempt to stimulate interest in community energy schemes.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 754 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiewen Deng ◽  
Qingpeng Wei ◽  
Shi He ◽  
Mei Liang ◽  
Hui Zhang

Deep borehole heat exchangers (DBHEs) extract heat from the medium-depth geothermal energy with the depth of 2–3 km and provide high-temperature heat source for the medium-depth geothermal heat pump systems (MD-GHPs). This paper focuses on the heat transfer performance of DBHEs, where field tests and simulation are conducted to analyze the heat transfer process and the influence factors. Results identify that the heat transfer performance is greatly influenced by geothermal properties of the ground, thermal properties and depth of DBHEs and operation parameters, which could be classified into external factors, internal factors and synergic adjustment. In addition, the long-term operation effects are analyzed with the simulation, results show that with inlet water temperature setting at 20 °C and flow rate setting at 6.0 kg/s, the average outlet water temperature only drops 0.99 °C and the average heat extraction drops 9.5% after 20-years operation. Therefore, it demonstrates that the medium-depth geothermal energy can serve as the high-temperature heat source for heat pump systems stably and reliably. The results from this study can be potentially used to guide the system design and optimization of DBHEs.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuang Chen ◽  
Jakob Randow ◽  
Katrin Lubashevsky ◽  
Steve Thiel ◽  
Tom Reinhardt ◽  
...  

<p>Nowadays, utilizing shallow geothermal energy for heating and cooling buildings has received increased interest in the energy market. Among different technologies, large borehole heat exchanger (BHE) arrays are widely employed to supply heat to various types of buildings and districts. Recently, a 16-BHE array was constructed to extract shallow geothermal energy to provide heat to the newly-developed public building in Berlin. According to the previous geological survey, different non-homogeneous sedimentary layers exist in the subsurface, with variating groundwater permeabilities and thermal parameters. To estimate the performance of the BHE array system, and its sensitivity to different subsurface conditions, as well as to determine its thermal impact to the surrounding area, a comprehensive 3D numerical model has been set up according to the Berlin BHE array project. The model is simulated for 25 years with two finite element simulators, the open source code software OpenGeoSys (OGS) and the well-known commercial software FEFLOW. In the model, an annual thermal load curve is assigned to each BHE according to the real monthly heating demand. Although the way of the implementing parameters in the two programs differs from each other and some assumptions had to be made in the model comparison, the comparison result shows that both OpenGeoSys and FEFLOW produce in good agreement. Different parameters, e.g. the Darcy velocity, the thermal dispersivity of the aquifer, the surface temperature and the geothermal heat flux are investigated with respect to their impact on the underground and BHE circulation temperature. At last, the computed underground temperature and the brine fluid temperature evolution from OGS is benchmarked with the results from the model simulated in FEFLOW. The numerical experiments show that the the ground water field has the strongest influence on the brine fluid temperature within the BHEs. When the thermal dispersivity of the aquifer is considered, the mixing effect in the aquifer leads to a higher brine fluid temperature in the BHE, indicating a better thermal recharge of the system.</p>


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Cocchi ◽  
Sonia Castellucci ◽  
Andrea Tucci

The need to address climate change caused by greenhouse gas emissions attaches great importance to research aimed at using renewable energy. Geothermal energy is an interesting alternative concerning the production of energy for air conditioning of buildings (heating and cooling), through the use of geothermal heat pumps. In this work a model has been developed in order to simulate an air conditioning system with geothermal heat pump. A ground source heat pump (GSHP) uses the shallow ground as a source of heat, thus taking advantage of its seasonally moderate temperatures. GSHP must be coupled with geothermal exchangers. The model leads to design optimization of geothermal heat exchangers and to verify the operation of the geothermal plant.


Author(s):  
Miljan Vlahović ◽  
◽  
Milica Vlahović ◽  
Zoran Stević ◽  
◽  
...  

According to the official definition, approved by the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC), geothermal energy is energy accumulated as heat below the surface of solid soil. Geothermal energy is thermal energy generated and stored in the Earth. It is generally defined as the part of geothermal heat that can be directly utilized as heat or converted into other types of energy. Geothermal resources vary by location and depth towards the Earth's core. Their use is possible for different purposes depending on their temperature. This paper presents the harnessing geothermal resources for electricity generation. There are three main types of geothermal power plants: dry steam plants, flash steam plants, and binary cycle plants. Dry steam plants pipe hot steam from underground into turbines, which powers the generator to provide electricity. Flash steam plants pump hot water from underground into a cooler flash tank. The formed steam powers the electricity generator. Binary cycle plants pump hot water from underground through a heat exchanger that heats a second liquid to transform it into steam, which powers the generator. In all mentioned systems the used fluids are recycled. It can be concluded that geothermal power plants work similarly to other power plants, but providing the steam for starting the turbine from the earth's interior. The fact that used fluids return to the ground makes geothermal energy resources renewable.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document