Secure Underground Caverns as an Energy Storage Solution (SUCcESS)

Success项目将提供路线图，概述如何将BUL发展为岩盐行为的现场研究中心，这与支持开发用于天然气储存所需的溶液开采洞穴有关，以支持英国实现净零能源的雄心。支持路线图制定的证据基础将由对与岩盐地质和洞穴储存相关的研究感兴趣的利益攸关方(工业界、学术界、监管机构)提供信息。该路线图还将对现有数据和新获得的表征该设施基线地质条件的数据进行审查。这将为建设新项目提供极好的支持资源。可再生能源为英国提供了一种清洁的替代能源，但发电量往往与需求不匹配。这一点，再加上确保能源安全的需要，将需要增加电网规模的存储。气体存储(压缩空气(CAES)或氢气(CHGS))与可再生能源一起使用，在电网规模上提供近乎瞬时的电力，增加容量和消除间歇性，并促进使用可再生能源进行基本负荷能源生产。CAES和CHGS系统利用非高峰时段产生的多余能量，将压缩气体储存在大型物体中，根据需要释放出来发电。这对1)英国承诺通过减少燃烧化石燃料产生的二氧化碳来脱碳；2)通过支持英国可再生能源提高英国的资源安全；3)支持以英国为基础的可行的氢经济的发展；4)提供机会使英国处于这些新兴技术的研究和创新的前沿。几十年来，Halite一直被成功地用于天然气存储，但与工业发电的要求相比，现有设施提供的存储容量有限。与天然气储存不同的是，CAES和CHGS经历了快速的提取和再灌装循环，相应的压力和温度也发生了快速变化；这可能会导致材料破裂和失效。为了在快速循环的洞穴增压储能方面产生足够的知识库，现场测试设施是实现这一点的唯一现实的方法。Success项目的三项综合活动将为博尔比地下实验室(BUL)和STFC提供在该研究领域提供基础设施和能力的专业知识：A1：利益相关者参与-主办一系列有组织和有针对性的利益相关者参与研讨会，以创建专家网络并建立知识库，以发展和指导博尔比地下实验室未来的应用地球科学和地球能源研究。向更广泛的地球科学界宣传该设施。A2：数据发现和现场试点测试--确定哪些已有的地球科学数据将有助于建立地球能源研究设施，突出公共领域已有的相关知识，避免成本和工作的重复。通过几个具体且定义明确的试点测试来增强数据发现，以确认BUL托管地能研究的可行性。A3：知识传授-与BUL的工作人员接洽，以帮助地下设施的开发。这将使利用地下的项目得以交付，并将考虑到完整的地质系统(可供测试的岩石体积、地球化学、工程地质学、进入墙壁、屋顶和地板的基岩部分)。成功的顶峰将是详细说明潜在研究主题的路线图，该路线图将优化BUL可用于地能研究的地质环境，以与英国政府的净零议程保持一致。A1的利益相关者研讨会将提炼出制定路线图的重要研究主题。每个研究主题将包括一系列潜在的项目，这些项目可以随着设施的发展而在BUL开发。

The SUCcESS project will deliver a roadmap outlining how BUL could be developed as a center for in-situ research on halite behaviour, which is relevant to support the development of solution-mined caverns required for gas storage to support the UK net-zero energy ambitions. The evidence base to support the roadmap development will be informed by stakeholders (industry, academia, regulatory) with a working interest in research associated with halite geology and cavern storage. This roadmap will be supplemented by a review of existing data and newly acquired data that characterizes the baseline geological conditions at the facility. This will give an excellent support resource from which new projects can build.Renewable energies provide a clean alternative to power the UK but generation is often unmatched to demand. This, coupled with the need to ensure energy security, will necessitate an increase in grid-scale storage. Gas storage (compressed air (CAES) or hydrogen (CHGS)), working alongside renewable energies, provides near instantaneous electricity on the grid-scale, adding capacity and removing intermittency, and facilitating the use of renewables for baseload energy production. CAES and CHGS systems store compressed gas in large bodies using excess energy generated at off-peak times, releasing it as required to produce electricity. This has important implications for 1) the UK's commitment to decarbonise by reducing CO2 outputs from burning fossil fuels; 2) improving UK resource security by enabling UK renewables; 3) supporting the development of a viable UK-based hydrogen economy; 4) providing the opportunity to put the UK at the forefront of research and innovation in these emergent technologies. Halite has been successfully used for natural gas storage for decades, but existing facilities offer limited storage capacity compared to requirements for industrial power generation. Unlike natural gas storage, CAES and CHGS experience rapid withdrawal and refilling cycles with corresponding rapid pressure and temperature changes; this can lead to material cracking and failure. To generate an adequate knowledge base in fast-cycling cavern pressurisation for energy storage, an in-situ testing facility is the only realistic way to accomplish this. The three integrated activities of the SUCcESS project will provide Boulby Underground Laboratory (BUL) and STFC with the expertise to deliver infrastructure and capability in this research field:A1: Stakeholder engagement- Host a series of structured and targeted stakeholder engagement workshops to create an experts' network and establish a knowledge base to develop and direct future applied geosciences and geo-energy research at BUL. Promote the facility to the wider geoscience community.A2: Data discovery and In-situ pilot testing- Establish what geoscience data already exists that would be useful in the creation of a geo-energy research facility, highlighting the relevant knowledge already in the public domain and avoiding duplication of cost and effort. Augment the data discovery with a few specific and well-defined pilot tests to confirm the feasibility of BUL to host geo-energy research.A3: Knowledge transfer- Engage with staff at BUL to aid the underground facility development. This will be required to enable the delivery of projects utilizing the subsurface and will take account of the complete geological system (volume of rock available to test, geochemistry, engineering geology, access to bedrock sections in walls, roof and floor).The culmination of SUCcESS will be a roadmap detailing potential research themes that optimise the geological environment available at BUL for geo-energy research to align with the UK government's net-zero agenda. The stakeholder workshops in A1 will distill the important research themes that will frame the roadmap. Each research theme will comprise a series of potential projects that could be developed in BUL as the facility develops.