Evaluation of development potential of pumped hydroelectric storage and geothermal utilization system in abandoned coal mine

Abstract

Every year in China, a significant number of mines are closed or abandoned. The pumped hydroelectric storage (PHS) and geothermal utilization are vital means to efficiently repurpose resources in abandoned mine. In this work, the development potentials of the PHS and geothermal utilization systems were evaluated. Considering the geological conditions and meteorological data available of Jiahe abandoned mine, a simple evaluation model for PHS and geothermal utilization was established. The average efficiency of the PHS system exceeds 70% and the regulatable energy of a unit volume is over 1.53 kW·h/m³. The PHS system achieves optimal performance when the wind/solar power ratio reaches 0.6 and 0.3 in daily and year scale, respectively. In the geothermal utilization system, the outlet temperature and heat production are significantly affected by the injection flow rate. The heat production performance is more stable at lower rate flow, and the proportion of heat production is higher in the initial stage at greater flow rate. As the operating time increases, the proportion of heat production gradually decreases. The cyclic heat storage status has obvious advantages in heat generation and cooling. Furthermore, the energy-saving and emission reduction benefits of PHS and geothermal utilization systems were calculated.

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