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

间歇性和低品位的可再生能源具有取代化石燃料使用的未实现潜力，前提是它们的固有缺点可以克服。我们建议将新型储热技术与著名的有机朗肯循环结合起来，利用各种未充分利用的可再生热源（如太阳能和地热能）生产分布式供热和供电。这些热源通常等级太低，对于使用传统技术的发电来说在经济上不可行。ORC发电厂被认为是利用它们的最有前途的技术。为了提高成本效益并缩短投资回收期，可以在ORC发电厂中添加合适的储热系统，以克服太阳能的不稳定性或最大限度地减少深层地热钻孔的所需容量。基于合作伙伴之前在英国和中国的ORC技术和蓄热方面取得的成功，该联盟汇集了全面和互补的专业知识，以解决关键的技术挑战，从而推动了拟议技术的商业化。

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.