Estimation of Storage Capabilities of SteamPunCs Under Excessive Renewable Production 2030

Sammanfattning

SteamPunC represents a Carnot battery system, integrating a steam turbine power plant with a huge underground reservoir engineered to store steam at supercritical conditions. Its core principle involves the conversion of surplus electrical energy from the grid into superheated steam, which is subsequently stored within the SteamPunC infrastructure. This stored energy is later utilized for electricity generation to several MW scale employing traditional power plant technologies. The project aims to study the storage capabilities by utilizing the peaks in load curve thereby ensuring use of renewable components of energy in the German Power grid by 2030. Through the development of a simplified yet robust system model, the research focuses on quantifying the amount of energy stored in the vessel under static conditions at hourly intervals over the course of a month. Leveraging data from the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (Fraunhofer ISE) and employing the modelling capabilities of Ebsilon Professional, the thesis aims to provide comprehensive insights into the potential of SteamPunC as an ingredient for sustainable energy storage and utilization.