Newton Fund - An ORC power plant integrated with thermal energy storage to utilise renewable heat sources for distributed heating and power

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Intermittent and low-grade renewable energy sources have unrealised potential to displace the use of fossil fuels, provied their inherent drawbacks can be overcome. We propose to couple novel heat storage technologies to the well-known Organic Rankine Cycle to produce distributed heat and power supply using a wide range of under-utilised renewable heat sources, such as solar and geothermal energy. These heat sources are normally too low-grade to be economically unviable for power generation using conventional technologies. ORC power plants are believed to be the most promising technology to utilise them. In order to improve the cost-effectiveness and to reduce payback period, suitable heat storage systems can be added to ORC power plants to either overcome the intermittency of solar energy or minimise the required capacity of deep geothermal boreholes. Based on the partners’ previous successes with ORC technologies and heat storages in both the UK and China, this consortium brings together comprehensive and complementary expertise to address key technical challenges, thus pushing forward the commercialisation of the proposed technology.