ANGUS II

For the future energy supply based on renewables, energy storage will be a crucial component to compensate for producer fluctuations and seasonal variability. Geotechnical storage options provide large storage capacities as well as storage times from hours to months and years.

The research project ANGUS II continues investigating subsurface storage options for hydrogen, synthetic methane, compressed air and heat or cold - topics already adressed in the preceding project ANGUS+.

ANGUS II will complete the characterisation of the subterranean geosystem with the yet unstudied hydraulic barriers and related processes. Coupling schemes for existing models for the simulation of energy grids, individual power plants and geotechnical storage sites will be developed and applied to realistic scenarios. This will allow investigating economically feasible scenarios of storage operation and the integration of geotechnical energy storages into the energy supply considering different indicative trajectories of the grid expansion and the renewable energy production. Impacts of geotechnical storage operations on the subsurface environment will be quantified with variable temporal and spatial resolution using process-based simulations. Possible impacts on protected entities and possible interactions with adjacent storage sites or other types of subsurface use will be examined. Field measurements of natural background processes and mesoscale experiments will be used to validate newly developed modelling tools. The achieved results will help enhance a subsurface planning scheme developed in ANGUS+.

The project ANGUS II pursues 4 objectives:

1 | Describing the part of the geosystem in Schleswig-Holstein which hosts potential for geotechnical energy storage: Expanding the characterisation of processes and parameters for geological layers with low permeability, hydraulic barriers, and and the unsaturated zone.

2 | Enhancement and validation of existing models for the simulation of geotechnical energy storage sites and their impacts, as well as coupling with models for the simulation of the energy supply and individual power stations.

3 | Definition and Analyses of scenarios

a) considering the integration of geotechnical energy storage sites into the the energy supply and of economically feasible scenarios of operation.

b) considering the temporally and spatially resolved demands of  space by subsurface energy storage sites, especially in the highly utilised urban subsurface.

c) considering possible impacts on protected entities and the interaction with adjacent storage sites or other types of subsurface use.

4 | Preparing and testing modelling tools for the integration of geotechnical storage sites into the the energy supply and the definition of economically feasible scenarios of operation. Enhancement of the tools and methods for a large scael subsurface spatial planning scheme developed in ANGUS+.