TECHNO-ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SEASONAL BOREHOLE THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE FOR HEATING APPLICATIONS
Borehole Thermal Energy Storage (BTES) provides an innovative solution to utilize the subterraneous rock formations as a large thermal battery. The surplus thermal energy produced during the low demand periods is stored in the subsurface through shallow geothermal wells, and efficiently extracted throughout the peak demand months to provide space heating. In this study, a high-temperature BTES system is proposed to satisfy the daily winter heating demand of Snee Hall, Cornell University, Ithaca. The BTES is charged with overproduced summer steam (May to October) from Cornell’s Combined Heat and Power Plant and is subsequently harnessed (November to April) through an integrated heat pump (HP). To investigate the techno-economic feasibility of the project, a BTES + HP simulation tool was developed on Python 3.8.1 and validated. The tool simulates the 2-D transient heat transfer processes occurring in the rock structures and quantifies the key multi-year performance metrics (exit fluid temperature profile, the amount of energy stored/extracted, round-trip thermal efficiency and the COP of the heat pump) of the system. The technical performance of multiple BTES configurations was analyzed to optimize the BTES dimensions (number of boreholes, borehole spacing, borehole depth) for the site geological properties. The simulations indicate that an octagonal BTES array (90 m depth, 3 m spacing) with a 250 KW HT-heat pump can provide 94% of Snee Hall’s winter heating demand (COP-3.85, BTES efficiency-68.7%). The economic analysis reveals that proposed system has an NPV of $647,912 (year 30), IRR of 15%, and a payback period of 9 to 10 years. The system can offset up to 7349.45 MMBTU of natural gas combustion and save 273 MT CO2 emissions annually.