DemoStorage – planning and monitoring of an ATES demonstrator site in an urban environment

Aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) is comparatively rarely used in Germany. Since there is a lack of demonstration plants nationally, the goal of our BMBF-funded joint project “DemoSpeicher” (Development and Monitoring of Seasonal Heat and Cold Storage for the Demonstration of Aquifer Storage) is to implement and scientifically accompany a near-surface LT-ATES. Within the scope of the project, the entire construction cycle of an LT-ATES is to be covered, which ranges from design and planning to grid integration and commissioning to thermal energy supply. Legal admission requirements are developed in the process. An urban site in Germanys capital Berlin-Mitte was selected for the implementation of the demonstration plant. An extensive monitoring program is planned for the thermal-hydraulic underground processes. Another focus of the project will be possible changes in groundwater chemistry and temperature-sensitive groundwater ecology because of thermal loading. Monitoring of energy flows is also planned to estimate the thermal energy exchange between the aquifer reservoir and the building's systems engineering. This will include a heating and cooling demand analysis, as well as an assessment of potential synergistic use effects with other technologies that could be used, for example, for thermal loading of aquifer storage. All results will be presented in a coupled thermal-hydraulic modeling. The project and the first results of the implementation of an LT-ATES in a densely populated urban area will be presented and discussed in this presentation.