Prospects for Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage in the UK

Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) is an underground thermal energy storage technology that provides large capacity (of order MWth to 10s MWth), low carbon heating and cooling to large buildings or complexes of buildings, or district heating/cooling networks.  The technology operates through seasonal capture, storage and re-use of thermal energy in shallow aquifers, reducing carbon emissions and electricity demand for heating and cooling compared to direct ground- or air-sourced heat pump systems.

We demonstrate that ATES could make a significant contribution to decarbonising UK heating and cooling, but uptake is currently very low.  We identify eleven low temperature (LT-ATES) systems operating in the UK, with the first having been installed in 2006. These systems currently meet <0.01% of the UK’s heating and <0.5% of cooling demand.  Despite the current low uptake, the UK has large potential for widespread deployment of LT-ATES, due to its seasonal climate and the wide availability of suitable aquifers which are co-located with urban centres of high heating and cooling demand.  We use a probabilistic approach to estimate that ATES could supply approximately 64.5 % of current UK heating demand, and 80 % of cooling demand.  

A key barrier to increasing UK uptake is lack of awareness of the technology.  We analyse the performance of a successful UK installation, and also report installations in which problems with design and operation have caused sub-optimal performance.  The UK can benefit from experience of both successful and unsuccessful deployments but these need to be more widely reported.