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的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重点都放在了电力上。然而，如果不解决占最终能源需求的40%的供暖问题，就无法应对这一挑战。供暖占英国碳排放的20%。城市化的趋势是明确和明确的。在英国，大约80%的人口已经生活在城市，他们对绝大多数的碳排放负有责任。在全球范围内，城市已经承担了75%的能源消耗，每周有150万人迁移到城市地区，它们是从现在到2050年所需的基本能源转变的重要组成部分。该项目将加深我们对城市环境中分散热储存的潜在部署配置和应用的理解，通过调查：-热储如何平衡城市供热和电力系统之间的接口-未来电网的脱碳将如何改变能源用于供暖和制冷的方式，包括热泵技术的扩展-热储如何有助于减轻对供暖低碳电力需求增加的影响；如何通过将热储与区域供热和制冷相结合来最大限度地利用城市系统的废热；城市可以被视为复杂的系统，以及为了更好地了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，以认识到城市能源系统的社会、技术、经济和环境方面的重要性和相互作用。将开发一些详细的案例研究，以模拟各种规模的储热应用。

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.