One overarching problem of renewable wind energy is intermittent sources to satisfy a fluctuating demand. Therefore, optimal use of renewable sources requires energy storage. An innovative system to meet this need is Underground Energy Storage (UES) which has the potential to level fluctuating demand and intermittent production of offshore wind farms in the North Sea.
UES working principle is pumping/discharging pressurized fluids into/from an underground natural (e.g. salt mines) or man-made (membrane bags) reservoir to store/discharge surplus energy; the pressurized fluid can store potential and mechanical energy resulting from the self-weight and deformations of the reservoir and above ground.
This project aims to explore a new innovative technique for mechanical energy storage by forming subsurface structures at depths between 10m-100m within the (otherwise) permeable ground and deploying a compressed gas via a fluid system, in specific, the generation and operation of CO2-hydrate subsurface capsules, which are formed by pressurized water against pressurized CO2 gas. This is a scalable concept, can be an alternative or integration to power-to-x systems for offshore wind.
Main supervisor:
Nicolas von Solms
Co- supervisor:
Jyoti Shanker Pandey