Embodiments of the invention utilize the geothermal energy exchanger and battery (GEEB) to recover and store thermal energy from the dwelling, from the ground, and from the Earth's atmosphere, reuse the thermal energy in another season of the year, and consume electrical energy to heat and cool the structure at electrical Off Peak time periods. The GEEB may be constructed of a compact steel, ribbed and waterproof permanent container that is set at a depth beneath the surface of the ground where the normal soil temperature is virtually constant year round. The container can then be encased in poured concrete, with the exception of piping or conduits. The container is then filled with a heat transfer fluid so that the entire thermal mass of the GEEB and heat transfer fluid reaches the ambient ground temperature and efficiently couples the load and source sides of a heating and cooling system.

The present disclosure relates to a system for storing and time shifting at least one of excess electrical power from an electrical power grid, excess electrical power from the power plant itself, or heat from a heat generating source, in the form of pressure and heat, for future use in assisting with a production of electricity. An oxy-combustion furnace is powered by a combustible fuel source, plus excess electricity, during a charge operation to heat a reservoir system containing a quantity of a thermal storage medium. During a discharge operation, a discharge subsystem has a heat exchanger which receives heated CO.sub.2 from the reservoir system and uses this to heat a quantity of high-pressure, supercritical CO.sub.2 (sCO.sub.2) to form very-high-temperature, high-pressure sCO.sub.2 at a first output thereof. The very-high-temperature, high-pressure sCO.sub.2 is used to drive a Brayton-cycle turbine, which generates electricity at a first output thereof for transmission to a power grid. The Brayton-cycle turbine also outputs a quantity of sCO.sub.2 which is reduced in temperature and pressure to a heat recuperator subsystem. The heat recuperator subsystem circulates the sCO.sub.2 and re-heats and re-pressurizes the sCO.sub.2 before feeding it back to the heat exchanger to be even further reheated, and then output to the Brayton-cycle turbine as a new quantity of very-high-temperature, high-pressure sCO.sub.2, to assist in powering the Brayton-cycle turbine.

A closed-loop system and method for heating of target contaminant zones having environmental contaminants of concern present in the groundwater and the soil by thermal conduction, and subsequent enhancements of physical, biological and chemical processes to attenuate, remove and degrade contaminants in the target contaminant treatment zones, is disclosed. The system and method collects solar or other heat and transfers the heat via a closed-loop and a set of borehole exchangers to subsurface soil in the proximity of and/or directly to the target contaminant treatment zones. The target contaminant treatment zone may comprise contaminated soil, contaminated groundwater in an aquifer, or industrial waste comprising water and/or solids. Solar collectors or heat exchangers capturing waste heat from industrial processes may be used as the heat source.

A new system for and a method of deploying a heat exchanger pipe. A bore hole is drilled from an access ditch location to a terminal ditch location using a piloted drill head powered via an umbilical attached to the piloted drill head. A casing is attached to the piloted drill head and disposed about the umbilical into the bore hole from the access ditch location to the terminal ditch location. At the terminal ditch location, the piloted drill head is removed from the casing and the umbilical and a heat exchanger pipe is attached to the umbilical. The umbilical is withdrawn from within the casing deployed in the bore hole to pull the heat exchanger pipe into the casing. The casing is then withdrawn from the bore hole leaving the heat exchanger pipe in the bore hole.

A method for calculating ground storage device temperatures for operating a geothermal facility with a circulation system by means of at least one geothermal heat exchanger or an energy pile with inflow and outflow lines leading to the geothermal heat exchanger or energy pile. The underground temperature in the ground storage device and/or the temperatures on the inflow and outflow lines are measured. The method includes the following steps: designing a ground storage device model (2) for converting the measured temperature variations into dynamic energy flows in the ground storage device; designing an energy flow model (3) based on statistically determined models and influencing variables relating to heat and cold; and calculating the future temperature variations (5) in the ground storage device using the energy flow model (3) and the ground storage device model (2).

The invention relates to a thermal energy storage with at least one thermal energy storage volume. The thermal energy storage comprises at least one primary borehole extending from ground level to a first predetermined depth in a rock body; at least one set of secondary boreholes located around the at least one primary borehole; and at least an upper and a lower fracture plane extending in a radial and/or oblique plane from the at least one primary borehole towards adjacent secondary boreholes. At least one fracture plane permits a hydraulic flow between at least one of the secondary boreholes and the primary borehole. Each thermal energy storage volume is defined by one set of secondary boreholes and its upper and lower fracture planes. The set of secondary boreholes diverge away from the at least one primary borehole at each fractured plane level, without intersecting the at least one primary borehole.

A closed-loop system and method for heating of target contaminant zones having environmental contaminants of concern present in the groundwater and the soil by thermal conduction, and subsequent enhancements of physical, biological and chemical processes to attenuate, remove and degrade contaminants in the target contaminant treatment zones, is disclosed. The system and method collects solar or other heat and transfers the heat via a closed-loop and a set of borehole exchangers to subsurface soil in the proximity of and/or directly to the target contaminant treatment zones. The target contaminant treatment zone may comprise contaminated soil, contaminated groundwater in an aquifer, or industrial waste comprising water and/or solids. Solar collectors or heat exchangers capturing waste heat from industrial processes may be used as the heat source.

A cooling system transfers thermal energy from a temperature-critical reservoir to a heat sink. The system has an intermediate reservoir which is thermally interposed between the temperature-critical reservoir and the heat sink. The intermediate reservoir serves as an energy buffer between the two reservoirs by accepting thermal energy from the temperature-critical reservoir, storing that energy, and then transferring it to a heat sink by means of a temperature-driven process rather than by means of a heat pump. Transfer of thermal energy from the intermediate reservoir to the heat sink is temporally coordinated with naturally occurring temperature variations of the heat sink so that all thermal energy transfer processes conducted by the system are temperature-driven.

A compressed air energy storage system may have an accumulator and a thermal storage subsystem having a cold storage chamber for containing a supply of granular heat transfer, a hot storage chamber and at least a first mixing chamber in the gas flow path and having an interior in which the compressed gas contacts the granular heat transfer particles at a mixing pressure that is greater than the cold storage pressure and the hot storage pressure and a conveying system operable to selectably move the granular heat transfer particles from the cold storage chamber, through the first mixing chamber and into the hot storage chamber, and vice versa.

A device for energy transfer and for energy storage in a liquid reservoir has a water heat exchanger arranged on a bottom and has an air heat exchanger arranged above the water heat exchanger, wherein the water heat exchanger is arranged in a liquid reservoir that is surrounded by an inner shell which delimits the device with respect to an outer shell covering the inner shell from the bottom, wherein the outer shell is at least partially inserted into an earth layer, and the device is closed upwardly by a lid in such a way as to make it possible to generate a flow of air from an air inlet to an air outlet of the air heat exchanger.