ThinkGeoEnergy
Summary
The Federal Environment Agency (Umweltbundesamt) of Germany has shared a new study on deep geothermal energy on its website. It examines the extent to which geothermal-based electricity and heat systems can be used to flexibly cover electricity requirements and, above all, to provide control power without this having a negative impact on the heat supply.
The scientists from the Technical University of Munich and the University of Bayreuth come to differentiated results in their study on flexibility options for electricity and heat generation with geothermal energy (study in German). The technical analysis as well as the simulation of the geothermal systems showed that the technical potential of the permanent provision of positive and negative control reserve for almost all technical flexibility options, especially for existing systems, is low. The exception is the technical flexibility potential for the provision of positive control power through hot water or thermal water storage tanks. The technical potential here is medium to large, but the technical effort is also increasing.
The technical potential of the positive and negative provision of control reserve with limited time availability (i.e. in time slices), on the other hand, is medium to large for almost all flexibility options. However, the overall potential of balancing power provision remains at a low level.
Compared to conventional combined heat and power (CHP), geothermal energy, according to the study, shows a very variable power figure, which guarantees a very high degree of flexibility between power and heat generation. The CO2 emissions per unit of energy generated are lower than with fossil CHP.
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