SEASONAL THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS IN TRONDHEIM: POSSIBILITIES AND CHALLENGES

In regions with significant heating requirements, the effective utilization of waste heat from industrial processes becomes crucial for sustainable energy practices in buildings. Norway, possessing an extensive district heating infrastructure and substantial combined heat and power generation, encounters challenges in maximizing the use of excess heat during the summer months despite its temperate climate. The constant operation of waste incineration plants, irrespective of weather conditions, necessitates thoughtful considera- tion for long-term heat storage solutions. Presently, a large variety of seasonal thermal energy storage technologies exist but the most convenient are the ones based on the ex- ploitation of geothermal energy resources. This study uses dynamic simulations performed with MATLAB software to assess the viability of integrating excess heat from waste incineration into the conventional district heating system of a newly developed residential areas. Seasonal thermal energy storage has been modelled by using an analytical model for ver- tical borehole thermal energy storage. Since this analysis is restricted to the design phase, main results concern the plot of the storage and operating fluid temperatures, the positive effect the storage has on the re- duction of heat supplied by the waste incineration plant and the supply and the return temperature of the low temperature district heating. Thus, thanks to this study this solution represents a valuable technology to store a suffi- cient amount of energy for district heating systems connected to waste incineration plants at high latitudes.