Wind turbines and solar panels (China).
© chungking - Fotolia
On 7 February at its AGM, the ANCRE energy research alliance, whose members are the 19 main French public research organisations on energy, including the BRGM, presented several landmark French and European research projects on energy storage.
These research and development projects illustrate the contributions of scientists to social and industrial issues arising from the energy transition. Energy storage is an essential step in reaching the goals set out in French national and international undertakings on energy that arise from France's role in:
- incorporating renewables into the energy mix: storage technologies are essential to the management of intermittent energy production and therefore to increasing their proportion in the French energy mix;
- lowering carbon intensity, in other words reducing the use of CO2-emitting fossil fuels.
Principle of operation of the demonstrator.
© BRGM
An underground heat storage demonstrator now under development at the BRGM as part of a local energy system for emission-free buildings
Introducing underground heat storage into a multi-energy system (CHP) at the point of demand (building) could help to optimise self-consumption/self-production of intermittent renewable energy. A demonstrator is being developed on the BRGM's "geothermal energy" platform to contribute to solutions for minimising greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, thanks in particular to dynamic management of heat injection piloted by an AI algorithm.
The Yvon Morandat mineshaft: Gardanne, a "smart city for tomorrow"
The BRGM took part in the implementation of the project to redevelop the abandoned Yvon Morandat mine at Gardanne "from brownfield site to technological and social innovation hub", which is aiming to become France's first activity cluster earning the Mediterranean Eco-District and Sustainable Neighbourhood label. On 11 October 2017, the project received the EPL 2017 Trophy in the "smart cities for tomorrow" category.
