Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES) systems, such as Aquifer thermal energy storage(ATES) are used in several countries. The regulation and research on the potential impacts of ATESon groundwater resources and the subsurface environment often lag behind the technologicaldevelopment of an ever-growing demand for this renewable energy source. The lack of a clear andscientifically supported risk management strategy implies that potentially unwanted risks might betaken at vulnerable locations such as near well fields used for drinking water production. At othersites, on the other side, the application of ATES systems is avoided without proper reasons. Thisresults in limiting the utilization of the ATES technology in many occasions, affecting the possibilityto increase the share of renewable energy use. Therefore, further studies to characterizegroundwater resources, performance monitoring and identification of environmental impacts areneeded to understand the advantages and limitations of ATES systems.
The environmental impact and technical performance of a Low Temperature ATES (LT-ATES)system in operation since 2016 is presented. The system is called Rosenborg and is owned byVasakronan. It is located in the northern part of Stockholm, on a glaciofluvial deposit called theStockholm esker. The ATES system is used to heat and cool two commercial buildings with a totalarea of around 30,000 m2. The ATES consists of 3 warm and 2 cold pumping wells that are able topump up to 50 liters per second.
Analysis of groundwater sampling included a period of 9 months prior to ATES operation as well asthe first full season of heating and cooling operation. The sampling was conducted in a group ofwells in the vicinity of the installation and within the system. Means of evaluation constituted astatistical approach that included Kruskal-Wallis test by ranks, to compare the wells before and afterthe ATES was used. Then principal component analysis (PCA) and clustering analysis were used tostudy the ground water conditions change before and after the ATES. Aquifer Variation Ratio(AVR) was suggested as mean to evaluate the overall conditions of the aquifer pre- and post- ATES.
The results showed some variations in redox potential, particularly at the cold wells which likely wasdue to the mixing of groundwater considering the different depths of groundwater beingabstracted/injected from different redox zones. Arsenic, which has shown to be sensitive to hightemperatures in other research showed a decrease in concentration. A lower specific conductivityand total hardness at the ATES well compared to their vicinity was found. That indicates that theyare less subject to salinization and that no accumulation has occurred to date. It is evident that theenvironmental impact from ATES is governed by the pre-conditions in soil- and groundwater. ThePCA and clustering analysis showed very little change in the overall conditions in the aquifer whencomparing the ATES before and after operation. Temperature change showed negligible impact.This can be mainly attributed to the relatively small temperature change (+6 and – 5 degrees) fromthe undisturbed Aquifer temperature which is 10.5°C.
Performance of Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) systems for seasonal thermal storagedepends on the temperature of the extracted/injected groundwater, water pumping rates and thehydrogeological conditions of the aquifer. ATES systems are therefore often designed to work witha temperature difference between the warm side and cold side of the aquifer without riskinghydraulic and thermal intrusion between them, and avoiding thermal leakage to surrounding area, i.e. optimize hydraulic and thermal recovery. The hydraulic and thermal recovery values of the first yearof operation in Rosenorg weres 1.37 and 0.33, respectively, indicating that more storage volume(50500m3) was recovered during the cooling season than injected (36900m3) in the previous heatingseason.
Monitoring the operation of pumping and observation wells is crucial for the validation of ATESgroundwater models utilized for their design, and measured data provides valuable information forresearchers and practitioners working in the field. After months of planning and installation work,selected measurements recorded in an ATES monitoring project in Sweden during the first threeseasons of operation are reported in this report.
The monitoring system consists of temperature sensors and flow meters placed at the pumpingwells, a distributed temperature-sensing rig employing fiber optic cables as linear sensor andmeasuring temperature every 0.25 m along the depth of all pumping and several observation wells,yielding temporal and spatial variation data of the temperature in the aquifer. The heat injection andextraction to and from the ground is measured using power meters at the main line connecting thepumping wells to the system. The total heat and cold extracted from the aquifer during the firstheating and cooling season is 190MWh and 237MWh, respectively. A total of 143 MWh of heatwere extracted during the second heating season. The hydraulic and thermal recovery values of thefirst year of operation was 1.37 and 0.33, respectively, indicating that more storage volume(50500m3) was recovered during the cooling season than injected (36900m3) in the previous heatingseason. The DTS data showed traces of the thermal front from the warm storage reaching the coldone. Only 33% of the thermal energy was recovered. These losses are likely due to ambientgroundwater flow as well as conduction losses at the boundaries of the storage volume. Additionally,the net energy balance over the first year corresponds to 0.12 which indicates a total net heating ofthe ATES over the first year. It is recommended to increase the storage volume and achieve morehydraulic and thermal balance in the ATES system. This can enhance the thermal recovery andoverall performance. Continuous monitoring of the ATES is and will be ongoing for at least 3 moreyears. The work presented in this report is an initial evaluation of the system aiming to optimize theATES performance.
Furthermore, data management and processing tool has been established for the ATES system in Rosenborg. Additionally, a conceptual model of the ATES area has been established. Current andfuture work is focussed on completing a full scale numerical model in FEFLOW and validated themodel (both hydraulically and thermally) with the available monitoring data. Furthermore,establishing recommendations for optimum design and operation of ATES system.