5th Generation District Heating and Cooling (5GDHC) is the perfect partner for seasonal thermal storage with shallow borehole technology.
Research from the University of Geneva showed that low temperature heating and cooling networks allow to regenerate borehole heat exchanges, particularly when considering predicted increase in cooling energy demand. The improved thermal balance allows to reduce the total number of boreholes to address thermal needs by avoiding long term decrease in ground temperatures.
High-up front costs for boreholes are offset by high system efficiency resulting in low energy costs over the system lifetime.
When cooling to heating ratio is within the optimal range of 0.4 to 1.0, 5GDHC reaches lower levelized cost compared with modern heat pump driven systems and present-day gas-fired heating systems.
Publications:
- Xiang Li, Selin Yilmaz, Martin K. Patel, and Jonathan Chambers. “Techno-Economic Analysis of Fifth-Generation District Heating and Cooling Combined with Seasonal Borehole Thermal Energy Storage.” Energy 285 (December 2023): 129382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2023.129382
- Xiang Li, Jonathan Chambers, Selin Yilmaz, and Martin K. Patel. “Sensitivity Analysis of Fifth Generation District Heating and Cooling Coupled with Borehole Thermal Energy Storage with Respect to Cooling Adoption.” Accepted by Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Spin-off:
- The company Planeto SA was incorporated as a spin-off from the University of Geneva to commercialise the TESSA (Thermal Energy System Simulation Assistant) software.
