Thermal Energy Storage Potential in Supermarkets

Abstract: The objective of this research is to evaluate the potential of thermal energy storage in supermarkets with CO2 refrigeration systems. Suitable energy storage techniques are investigated and the seasonal storage technology of boreholes is chosen to be the focus of the study. The calculations are done for five supermarket refrigeration systems with different combinations of heating systems and borehole thermal energy storage control strategies. The two heating systems analyzed are the ground source heat pump and the heat recovery from the supermarket’s refrigeration system. The simulation results show that the introduction of thermal energy storage in the scenarios with heat pump can reduce the annual total energy by 6.3%. It is also shown that increasing the number of boreholes can decrease the life cycle cost of the system. Moreover, it is established that a supermarket system with heat recovery consumes 8.1% less energy than the one using heat pump and adding thermal energy storage on the heat recovery system further improves the energy consumption by 3.7% but may become costly.