| Popis: |
The successful widespread commercialization of aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) in the United States will depend on how experiences gained from early full-scale projects are used as guides in the design, installation, and operation of future projects. One early system, built in the mid-1980s, is the US Postal Service (USPS) Mid-Island Mail Processing Facility (MPF), in Melville, New York. The heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) of the MPF`s workroom is provided by an ATES system, which is operated year-round to provide a source for both heating and cooling, in combination with a triethylene glycol (TEG) liquid-desiccant system for humidity control. Because the facility affords a unique opportunity to study this innovative system, the US Department of Energy`s (DOE) Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) entered into agreements with the USPS, the US Geological Survey (USGS), and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (the Energy Authority) to assess the operation and performance of the system. Two essentially independent questions were to be addressed by the project. The first question was: ``How does the MPF ATES/TEG technology compare to conventional technologies?`` The second was: ``What can be done to make operation of the USPS MPF more economical?`` Modelling of themore » MPF ATES/TEG HVAC system and its loads helped to address both of these questions by showing how much energy is used by the different system components. This report is divided into six sections. Section 1 is an introduction. Section 2 provides system background. Section 3 describes PNL`s technical performance assessment of the system. Section 4 discusses the life-cycle cost assessment. An operational assessment of the liquid-desiccant system is discussed in Section 5. Section 6 contains conclusions of this study.« less |
