Addressing the urban energy challenge: The role of distributed thermal storage in future low carbon city energy systems

该项目将寻求了解如何在未来能源系统中部署热能储存技术，并帮助解决提供清洁，廉价和安全能源的三难困境。到目前为止，英国能源系统脱碳的大部分焦点都集中在电力上。然而，如果不解决40%的供暖最终能源需求，就无法应对这一挑战，而供暖占英国碳排放量的20%。城市化的趋势是明确而明确的。在英国，大约80%的人口已经居住在城市，他们对绝大多数的碳排放负责。在全球范围内，城市已经承担了75%的能源消耗，每周有150万人搬到城市地区，他们是从现在到2050年所需的基本能源转型的重要组成部分。该项目将通过调查，发展我们对城市环境中分散式蓄热的潜在部署配置和应用的理解：- 蓄热如何平衡城市供热和电力系统之间的接口-未来电网脱碳将如何改变能源用于加热和冷却的方式，包括热泵技术的扩展-蓄热如何帮助减轻对低碳电力加热需求增加的影响-如何通过将蓄热与区域供热和制冷相结合，最大限度地利用城市系统的废热城市可以被认为是复杂的系统，为了更好地理解系统的相互作用元素和紧急行为，将采用基于复杂性的工具和技术，这些工具和技术认识到社会，技术，城市能源系统的经济和环境方面。将开发一些详细的案例研究，以模拟各种规模的热存储应用。

This project will seek to understand how thermal energy storage technologies can be deployed within the future energy system and help to address the trilemma of providing clean, cheap and secure energy. To date, much of the focus in decarbonising the UK's energy system has been on electricity. However, the challenge cannot be addressed without tackling the 40% of final energy demand for heating which accounts for 20% of UK carbon emissions.The trend to urbanisation is clear and unequivocal. In the UK around 80% of the population already lives in cities and they are responsible for the vast majority of carbon emissions. Globally cities are already responsible for 75% of energy consumption and with 1.5 million people moving to urban areas every week, they are a vital part of the fundamental energy transformation that will be required between now and 2050.The project will develop our understanding of the potential deployment configurations and applications for decentralised heat storage within the urban environment, by investigating:- How thermal storage can balance the interface between urban heat and electricity systems - How future electricity grid decarbonisation will change the way energy is used for heating and cooling including the expansion of heat pump technology- How thermal storage can help mitigate the impact of increased demands for low carbon electricity for heating- How the use of waste heat from urban systems can be maximised through integrating thermal storage with district heating and cooling Cities can be thought of as complex systems and to better understand the interacting elements and emergent behaviours of the system, complexity-based tools and techniques will be employed which recognise the importance and interaction of social, technological, economic and environmental aspects of urban energy systems. A number of detailed case studies will be developed with which to model the application of thermal storage at a range of scales.