Wind powered Thermal Energy Systems – Opportunities from a holistic system’s perspective and comparison of concepts for room heating

Abstract

The capability of Wind Powered Thermal Energy Systems (WTES) to provide dispatchable energy from an intermittent, renewable resource makes them highly attractive to replace fossil fired electricity and heat generators in all areas of an energy system. The presented study for the workshop emphasizes two topics. On the one hand it aims to give a complete overview of theoretical concepts that can be referred to as WTES for supply of both heat and electricity. Therefore, it considers possible advantages and drawbacks from an overall system’s point of view. On the other hand a techno-economic analysis based on the estimation of levelized costs of heat supply for room heating is carried out. The novelty of this study is the comparison of five specific WTES concepts, which either make use of electric boilers, hydro-dynamic retarders or heat pumps. Furthermore, in order to consider economies of scale three different system sizes are analysed ranging from the application of a small single wind turbine to WTES consisting of a wind park with rated power of several megawatts. The aim of this investigation is to identify regions where certain WTES are commercially interesting compared to traditional heating technologies. First results only taking into account the costs of wind energy converter and heat generation unit indicate the necessity of energy transport within WTES to be included in the techno-economic analysis.