Project location: CanmetENERGY Ottawa, Ottawa, ON
Timeline: 5 years (2023 to 2028)
Program: Funded by the Program of Energy R&D and Clean Energy for Rural & Remote Communities program
Project Overview and Objectives
Can the renewable technologies meet the energy needs for space heating and electricity when the temperatures fluctuate between minus 50 degrees Celsius during winter and plus 25 degrees Celsius, or higher, in summer, or when it is dark or when there is no wind for a period of time? There is a need for careful and comprehensive assessment of renewable energy and long-term storage technologies and empirical data on the renewable technologies collected under real life conditions. This project aims to close a critical knowledge gap related to reliability of renewable energy technologies by collecting and analysing performance data in real life under changing energy load profiles and with variability in energy sources.
Improving Long Term Reliability and Accessibility of Biomass Heating and Combined Heat and Power
The Bioenergy Systems team is focusing on evaluating the long-term reliability and performance of bioenergy systems in real-world conditions to identify opportunities for optimization. The project aims to remotely field monitor multiple bioenergy systems that are in operation in communities and remote locations, analyze their long-term operational data, and apply deep learning and predictive modeling techniques to identify optimization opportunities based on key performance indicators. These efforts are carried out in collaboration with communities and equipment suppliers.
Another key objective of the project is to enhance the understanding of the environmental performance of biomass systems and to develop emission factors for major air pollutants produced by bioenergy systems that are commonly installed in rural and remote communities.
This project adopts an interdisciplinary approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the interactions and relationships between technical, environmental, and socio-economic factors. It will provide guidelines for achieving long term reliability and performance of bioenergy technologies under real-life conditions and targeting optimisation potentials.
ARISE-North
The Renewable Heat and Power (RHP) team is developing ARISE-North, a microgrid test facility to demonstrate and collect performance data on technologies for the Advanced Renewable Integration and Storage of Energy in Northern and remote applications. Characteristics of ARISE-North technologies include ease of installation, compact design for transportation, suitability for extreme cold temperatures, infrequent maintenance intervals in northern and remote locations. Testing these technologies on-site will allow CanmetENERGY Ottawa to facilitate knowledge transfer on these technologies to interested stakeholders.
Planned Capabilities
Geothermal Energy for the North
CanmetENERGY Ottawa is working to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of geothermal energy systems for heat and power for the north. Its resource potential varies significantly across the north, from regions that have high geothermal gradients, such as hot sedimentary basins found in in parts of southeastern Yukon and western NWT, hot volcanic rock in southwestern Yukon; to the majority of the rest of the north that is underlain by crystalline rock of the Canadian Shield where the geothermal resource potential is much lower.
Our areas of research are:
- Deep enhanced geothermal systems (EGS): Deep EGS is a technology which harnesses geothermal energy from rock that is hot but has insufficient permeability. The rock is hydraulically stimulated to create a reservoir. Such systems may be developed for direct heat use, or power at greater (hotter) depths.
- Deep borehole heat exchange systems (DBHE): can be drilled more affordably than conventional geothermal wells by using smaller, cheaper, and more readily available drilling rigs (such as mining and water well rigs). These shallower (under 2km) wells can be coupled with heat pumps to boost the temperature of the produced fluid to provide heat to large buildings, a collection of houses, or possibly a district heating system.
Two main outcomes from the current work will be to understand the potential for deep EGS to meet the heat and power needs for remote communities located in regions with moderate to poor geothermal potential, and the potential for DBHEs to provide affordable heating in areas with good geothermal resources.
Impacts and Innovations
The technology testing program lab will be based at the Bells Corners Complex (Ottawa, Ontario). Researchers will document the installation, operation, maintenance and decommissioning processes. Technologies that are planned for testing include:
- Vertical axis wind turbine (5 kW)
- Concentrated solar thermal collector (5 kW)
- Mobile microgrid platform
- Phase change thermal energy storage
- Battery energy storage
- Variable speed generator with low carbon liquid fuels
This project will fill the data gap from existing clean energy systems operating in Northern and remote contexts and limited availability of community energy demand profiles by:
- generating cold weather performance and operational data for various renewable and bioenergy generation and storage technologies.
- deriving data and knowledge on the optimisation potentials in a micro-grid.
The results of our work will also provide information that communities, commercial and military installations, and other stakeholders can use to make informed decisions about developing stable and durable energy systems.
Results and Outcomes
Knowledge products resulted from this research will foster the adoption of similar technologies by utilities and communities and will contribute to de-risk the integration of a high fraction of renewable energy in remote micro-grids.
Contact CanmetENERGY in Ottawa
To learn more about this project, email our Office of Research Partnerships and External Relations.