CO2 savings from widespread deployment of Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage
Matthew Jackson, Imperial College LondonCambridge Fluids Network - fluids-related seminars13 March 2025 11:30amOpen Plan Area, Institute for Energy and Environmental Flows, Madingley Rise CB3 0EZAquifer Thermal Energy Storage (ATES) is an underground thermal energy storage technology that provides large capacity (of order MWth to 10s MWth), low carbon heating and cooling to the built environment. Heating and cooling currently produces 23% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. ATES can be a key technology for the UK to meet its net zero targets. ATES offers a higher overall coefficient of performance compared to conventional, open-loop shallow geothermal systems: waste heat and cool is captured and stored underground as warm and cool water, so less electrical energy is required by a heat pump to provide heating, and cooling can be delivered directly without the need for a heat pump.
ATES could make a significant contribution to decarbonising UK heating and cooling, but uptake is currently very low with eleven systems meeting <0.01% of the UK’s heating and <0.5% of cooling demand. Despite the current low uptake, the UK has large potential for widespread deployment of ATES due to its seasonal climate and the widespread availability of suitable aquifers which are co-located with urban centres of high heating and cooling demand. ATES could supply ca 61 % of UK heating demand and 79 % of cooling demand. Widespread deployment in the UK offers a 16-41% reduction in carbon emissions for heating, and 86-94% reduction for cooling, compared to equivalent ground- or air-sourced heat pump systems. A key barrier to increasing uptake is lack of awareness of the technology.