Periodic Reporting for period 1 - BEST-Storage (BUILDING ENERGY EFFICIENT SYSTEM THROUGH SHORT AND LONG SPECTRUM THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-04-30
The BEST Storage project focuses on tackling and providing solutions towards the numerous challenges that lay ahead of the European heating and cooling market. By 2030, considering energy efficiency and environmental targets set out by numerous countries and regions throughout the world, the thermal energy storage market could experience threefold growth, reaching over 800 GWh of installed capacity globally. As the EU looks to fulfill its climate neutrality objectives for 2050, one of the key parts of the energy equation that must be solved is that of the heating and cooling markets in the EU-27 which accounts for 50% of annual energy consumption. For these reasons, energy scenarios often suppose a very substantial contribution of renewable energy penetration in the heating and cooling sector supported by the multiplying effects of cross cutting technologies such as thermal energy storage solutions.
The BEST-Storage project tackles these challenges and aims to use the best possible storage technologies for each specific energy demand.
Three storage concepts will be developed:
• a thermo-chemical loss-free energy storage for long-term applications.
• a phase change material (PCM) slurry for cold storage applications to provide load shifting and peak shaving.
• a vacuum insulated (VI) water storage vessel for heating applications such as domestic hot water (DHW) and space heating (SH) allowing also to provide load shifting.
These storage approaches will be integrated into complete heating and cooling building energy management systems and short-term storages (PCM-slurry and VI water storage) will be equipped with model predictive controls (MPC) that will benefit from variable electricity prices to reduce operational costs while helping the electricity grid to be more stable, secure and resilient. The storage solutions are inherently modular providing cost savings, flexibility in design, size and operation.
In total, four storage solutions will be developed and tested at different TRL levels:
• one thermo-chemical material (TCM) storage,
• two PCM slurry solutions
• one sensible water storage with vacuum insolation (VI).
Moreover, the storage concepts will be developed and tested in real conditions in three real demo sites.
• Demo-case in Estonia (Single family home): The TCM as well as the VI-water storages integrated into the building energy management system will be demonstrated for heating and DHW applications bringing the systems to TRL 7.
• Demo-case in Greece (Lab-house): The TCM as well as the VI-water storages integrated into the building energy management system will be demonstrated for heating and cooling applications bringing the systems to TRL 7.
• Demo-case in Spain (office building): A PCM slurry storage of 9 kWh including the Model predictive control (MPC) will be used for cooling shifting in a research center building to bring it to TRL 7.
Additionally, an emulated demo-case in Switzerland (single family house) is also included whereby a system for heating and cooling will be demonstrated in the laboratory using a PCM slurry storage of 9 kWh and a VI-water storage bringing the TRL to 6.
The BEST-Storage project tackles these challenges and aims to use the best possible storage technologies for each specific energy demand.
Three storage concepts will be developed:
• a thermo-chemical loss-free energy storage for long-term applications.
• a phase change material (PCM) slurry for cold storage applications to provide load shifting and peak shaving.
• a vacuum insulated (VI) water storage vessel for heating applications such as domestic hot water (DHW) and space heating (SH) allowing also to provide load shifting.
These storage approaches will be integrated into complete heating and cooling building energy management systems and short-term storages (PCM-slurry and VI water storage) will be equipped with model predictive controls (MPC) that will benefit from variable electricity prices to reduce operational costs while helping the electricity grid to be more stable, secure and resilient. The storage solutions are inherently modular providing cost savings, flexibility in design, size and operation.
In total, four storage solutions will be developed and tested at different TRL levels:
• one thermo-chemical material (TCM) storage,
• two PCM slurry solutions
• one sensible water storage with vacuum insolation (VI).
Moreover, the storage concepts will be developed and tested in real conditions in three real demo sites.
• Demo-case in Estonia (Single family home): The TCM as well as the VI-water storages integrated into the building energy management system will be demonstrated for heating and DHW applications bringing the systems to TRL 7.
• Demo-case in Greece (Lab-house): The TCM as well as the VI-water storages integrated into the building energy management system will be demonstrated for heating and cooling applications bringing the systems to TRL 7.
• Demo-case in Spain (office building): A PCM slurry storage of 9 kWh including the Model predictive control (MPC) will be used for cooling shifting in a research center building to bring it to TRL 7.
Additionally, an emulated demo-case in Switzerland (single family house) is also included whereby a system for heating and cooling will be demonstrated in the laboratory using a PCM slurry storage of 9 kWh and a VI-water storage bringing the TRL to 6.
The BEST-Storage project has focused these first 16 months on general technological assessments and baselines, KPI definition and most importantly on the initial developments of the project solutions and technologies and how to effectively implement them in the demonstrators.
During this first reporting period, all tasks were fully implemented and objectives relevant for the reported period were fully achieved.
Generally, main technical activities and achievements can be separated into four broad categories. The technical set up activities, thermochemical storage activities, PCM activities and finally demonstration activities.
i) Technical set up activities and contextualization
Achievements include for instance the formation of Load Profile Database including domestic hot water and electricity and parameter sets for different building archetypes. Moreover, and perhaps most importantly the KPI framework for assessing and comparing BEST-Storage technologies and benchmark them to current state of the art has been defined.
All these achievements are here to assist in system development and configuration choices in early stages as well as qualify and monitor performance and results during demonstration.
ii) Thermo-chemical Storage
The main achievements are focused around experimentation with first generation ceramic structures providing crucial insights for the scaling design of the prototype, design and testing at lab scale of the combined-diluted concentrated sorbent tank, P&ID for the system in order to identify all necessary components as well as a detailed design of the absorber/desorber and evaporator/condenser units.
All of the activities so far have contributed towards decisions in the design of the scaled prototype and understanding how to optimize integration with current demos.
iii) PCM
Developments and achievements for the PCM Storage concepts are underway and in compliance with foreseen task timelines. PCM materials have been identified and selected for the PCM-Emulsion (PCM-E) formulation and PCM slurry with supercooling-crystallization (PCM-SCrys) formulation. In both cases, a laboratory testing device for charge and discharge in working conditions is being addressed. Finally, the architecture for the MPC has been defined.
iv) Demonstration
Achievements so far are focused on effectively preparing the demonstration sites for the implementation of the project solutions. Working groups for each demo site have been defined in parallel to general designs and contextualization work which is crucial towards identifying potential requirements for implementing the storage solutions.
During this first reporting period, all tasks were fully implemented and objectives relevant for the reported period were fully achieved.
Generally, main technical activities and achievements can be separated into four broad categories. The technical set up activities, thermochemical storage activities, PCM activities and finally demonstration activities.
i) Technical set up activities and contextualization
Achievements include for instance the formation of Load Profile Database including domestic hot water and electricity and parameter sets for different building archetypes. Moreover, and perhaps most importantly the KPI framework for assessing and comparing BEST-Storage technologies and benchmark them to current state of the art has been defined.
All these achievements are here to assist in system development and configuration choices in early stages as well as qualify and monitor performance and results during demonstration.
ii) Thermo-chemical Storage
The main achievements are focused around experimentation with first generation ceramic structures providing crucial insights for the scaling design of the prototype, design and testing at lab scale of the combined-diluted concentrated sorbent tank, P&ID for the system in order to identify all necessary components as well as a detailed design of the absorber/desorber and evaporator/condenser units.
All of the activities so far have contributed towards decisions in the design of the scaled prototype and understanding how to optimize integration with current demos.
iii) PCM
Developments and achievements for the PCM Storage concepts are underway and in compliance with foreseen task timelines. PCM materials have been identified and selected for the PCM-Emulsion (PCM-E) formulation and PCM slurry with supercooling-crystallization (PCM-SCrys) formulation. In both cases, a laboratory testing device for charge and discharge in working conditions is being addressed. Finally, the architecture for the MPC has been defined.
iv) Demonstration
Achievements so far are focused on effectively preparing the demonstration sites for the implementation of the project solutions. Working groups for each demo site have been defined in parallel to general designs and contextualization work which is crucial towards identifying potential requirements for implementing the storage solutions.
Although results are under development, it is early into the project to start talking about finalized results with their respective impacts.
Most developments are still in design or in lab testing phases.
Indeed, some results are close to finalized or finalized in terms of their laboratory testing such as the VI water storage with possibility to integrate with a heat pump or solar thermal.
Nevertheless, we remain in the pre-demonstration phase.
Most developments are still in design or in lab testing phases.
Indeed, some results are close to finalized or finalized in terms of their laboratory testing such as the VI water storage with possibility to integrate with a heat pump or solar thermal.
Nevertheless, we remain in the pre-demonstration phase.