可直接利用的地热能（地热能或将击败电池作为能源储存新方式）
可直接利用的地热能（地热能或将击败电池作为能源储存新方式）Fervo能源公司在8月筹集了1.38亿美元的风险资本资金，以推进其技术。该公司利用石油和天然气行业的创新技术，如水平钻探和分布式光纤传感，来创造地下储层。该公司计划利用新资金完成两个试点项目，包括与谷歌在内华达州的一个项目。增强型地热系统（EGS）通过创造人工储层来克服这一地理限制。开发商通过钻入或融化岩石，在炎热、干燥的岩层中创造出裂缝，然后将水注入裂缝。生产井将加热的水带上来用于生产电力。里克斯说：“对于为国家或全球电力脱碳做出贡献所必需的规模，我们需要能够在常规地层之外提取地热。”Ricks、他的博士生导师Jesse Jenkins和总部位于休斯顿的先进地热开发商Fervo Energy的联合创始人兼首席技术官Jack Norbeck对这种地热水库储能进行了广泛的模拟，以了解该系统的技术成分和经济性是否真的可行。他们发现，这些系统确实可以在不同的时间范围内储存电力，从几小时到许多天
地热系统将地球内部的温暖带到地表用于供暖或发电。但是，地热发电厂的建造成本很高，而且随着风能和太阳能越来越便宜和丰富，其经济可行性会越来越低。然而，即使随着风能和太阳能的增长，也需要储存来自这些不稳定来源的电力。
ISTOCK
一个新的建议可以解决这些问题，并支持所有三种可再生能源技术。这个想法很简单--利用先进的地热水库，以热水或蒸汽的形式储存多余的风能和太阳能，并在风能和太阳能不可用时，将这些热量提上来，使涡轮机转动发电。
普林斯顿大学机械和航空航天工程专业的研究生威尔逊-里克斯说：“这将使下一代地热厂打破传统的基荷运行模式，并作为风能和太阳能的供应商获得更大的价值。”
Ricks、他的博士生导师Jesse Jenkins和总部位于休斯顿的先进地热开发商Fervo Energy的联合创始人兼首席技术官Jack Norbeck对这种地热水库储能进行了广泛的模拟，以了解该系统的技术成分和经济性是否真的可行。他们发现，这些系统确实可以在不同的时间范围内储存电力，从几小时到许多天，与锂离子电池一样有效。此外，Ricks说：“随着地热水库的建设，储存能力实际上是免费的。”
他们的结果只适用于增强型地热厂，如Fervo和其他公司，如总部设在马萨诸塞州剑桥市的Quaise能源公司和总部设在西雅图的AltaRock能源公司正在开发的地热厂。
传统的地热系统将井钻入自然形成的热液储层。但这些深藏在地下的热水区并不是到处都有。例如，在美国，它们大多位于西部地区。
增强型地热系统（EGS）通过创造人工储层来克服这一地理限制。开发商通过钻入或融化岩石，在炎热、干燥的岩层中创造出裂缝，然后将水注入裂缝。生产井将加热的水带上来用于生产电力。里克斯说：“对于为国家或全球电力脱碳做出贡献所必需的规模，我们需要能够在常规地层之外提取地热。”
Fervo能源公司在8月筹集了1.38亿美元的风险资本资金，以推进其技术。该公司利用石油和天然气行业的创新技术，如水平钻探和分布式光纤传感，来创造地下储层。该公司计划利用新资金完成两个试点项目，包括与谷歌在内华达州的一个项目。
一旦这些EGS系统到位，它们将是储存能源和生产电力的理想选择。多余的风能或太阳能可以用来向人工水库注水，水在那里积聚并形成压力。然后，当需要电力时，生产井可以被打开。
Ricks说："EGS水库是在天然不透水的岩层中形成的，人工水库外的一切都被封住了。这与水力发电库非常相似，你可以选择何时让水通过大坝并发电。"
根据地质和岩石的特征，Ricks和他的同事们的模拟发现，这些系统可以在一个周期内以高达90%的效率储存能量。他说，这与锂离子和抽水蓄能相媲美。同时，与其他储能技术相比，其成本将是最低的。它将需要更大的地表设施，但存储空间实际上是免费的，因为EGS水库无论如何都是为电力而建。
今年1月，该团队从高级研究计划局-能源（ARPA-E）获得了450万美元的资金，用于在现场演示地热水库能源储存的全面测试。他们建模研究的详细结果出现在最近发表在《应用能源》杂志上的一篇论文中。
原文：
Geothermal May Beat Batteries for Energy StorageGeothermal systems carry warmth from Earth’s interior up to the surface for heating or electricity. But geothermal power plants are expensive to build and will get even less economically viable as wind and solar power get cheaper and more plentiful. However even as wind and solar grow so does the need to store electricity from those temperamental sources.
A new proposal could solve those issues and bolster all three renewable technologies. The idea is simple—use advanced geothermal reservoirs to store excess wind and solar power in the form of hot water or steam and bring up that heat when wind and solar aren’t available to turn turbines for electricity.
“It would allow next-generation geothermal plants to break from the traditional baseload operating paradigm and earn much greater value as suppliers of wind and solar ” says Wilson Ricks a graduate student in mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University.
Ricks his Ph.D. advisor Jesse Jenkins and Jack Norbeck cofounder and chief technology officer of Houston-based advanced geothermal developer Fervo Energy ran extensive simulations of such geothermal reservoir energy storage to see if the technical components of the system as well as the economics actually work out. They found that the systems could indeed store electricity over a range of time scales from a few hours up to many days as efficiently as lithium-ion batteries. Plus says Ricks “the storage capacity effectively comes free of charge with construction of a geothermal reservoir.”
Their results apply only to enhanced geothermal plants like the ones Fervo and other companies such as Cambridge Mass.–based Quaise Energy and Seattle-based AltaRock Energy are developing.
Conventional geothermal systems drill wells into naturally occurring hydrothermal reservoirs. But these pockets of hot water deep underground do not exist everywhere. In the United States for instance they are mostly located in the west.
Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) get around this geographical limitation by creating artificial reservoirs. Developers create fractures in hot dry rock formations by drilling into or melting the rock and then injecting water into the fissures. Production wells bring the heated water up for producing electricity. “For scales necessary to contribute to national or global electricity decarbonization we need to be able to extract geothermal heat outside of conventional formations ” Ricks says.
Fervo Energy raised US $138 million in venture capital funding in August to advance its technology. The company uses innovations from the oil and gas industry such as horizontal drilling and distributed fiber-optic sensing to create underground reservoirs. The company plans to use the new funds to complete two pilot projects including one with Google in Nevada.
Once these EGS systems are in place they would be ideal for storing energy as well as producing electricity. Excess wind or solar energy could be used to inject water into the artificial reservoirs where it would accumulate and build up pressure. The production wells could then be opened up when electricity is needed.
“EGS reservoirs are created in rock formations that are naturally impermeable; everything outside the artificial reservoir is sealed off ” says Ricks. “It’s very similar to a hydropower reservoir where you choose when to have water go through the dam and generate electricity.”
Depending on the geology and traits of the rocks Ricks and his colleagues’ simulations found that the systems could store energy with up to 90 percent efficiency over one cycle. That’s comparable with lithium-ion and pumped hydro storage he says. The cost meanwhile would be minimal compared to other energy storage technologies. It would require larger facilities on the surface but the storage space would be effectively free since the EGS reservoirs are being built for electricity anyway.
In January the team received $4.5 million in funding from the Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy (ARPA-E) to demonstrate a full-scale test of geothermal reservoir energy storage in the field. The detailed findings of their modeling study appear in a paper published recently in the journal Applied Energy.
