Development status and prospect of underground thermal energy storage technology

Abstract

Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES) store unstable and non-continuous energy underground, releasing stable heat energy on demand. This effectively improve energy utilization and optimize energy allocation. As UTES technology advances, accommodating greater depth, higher temperature and multi-energy complementarity, new research challenges emerge. This paper comprehensively provides a systematic summary of the current research status of UTES. It categorized different types of UTES systems, analyzes the applicability of key technologies of UTES, and evaluate their economic and environmental benefits. Moreover, this paper identifies existing issues with UTES, such as injection blockage, wellbore scaling and corrosion, seepage and heat transfer in cracks, etc. It suggests deepening the research on blockage formation mechanism and plugging prevention technology, improving the study of anticorrosive materials and water treatment technology, and enhancing the investigation of reservoir fracture network characterization technology and seepage heat transfer. These recommendations serve as valuable references for promoting the high-quality development of UTES.