Geothermal-Enabled Zero Energy Electric Community -- An Integrated System Design Study: Preprint
In northern climates, developing a zero-energy community is increasingly costly. Building loads are higher, thanks to the colder weather, and solar PV is both less effective, due to lower solar incidence, and misalignment with the buildings' energy needs (summer production, winter demands). We present a novel application for geothermal energy production in support of a zero-energy community, combining appropriate energy efficiency (demand design), geothermal production (supply design), and asset dispatch as an integrated technoeconomic package. This paper presents the process used to explore this system integration challenge, initial results, and discusses some of the technical opportunities for increasing the community-scale adoption of geothermal as an electric and thermal resource. Results indicate that under certain conditions, community-scale geothermal resources are quite competitive with today's grid tariffs and with PV, showing an LCOE within $0.01/kWh before consideration of important grid modernization factors such as resiliency and reliability.
- Research Organization:
- National Renewable Energy Lab. (NREL), Golden, CO (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Geothermal Technologies Office
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC36-08GO28308
- OSTI ID:
- 1573781
- Report Number(s):
- NREL/CP-5500-73610
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Presented at the Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) Annual Meeting & Expo, 15-18 September 2019, Palm Springs, California
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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