Reference number : GC-2017-Q1-02158, amendment number : , agreement type : G, recipient legal name : Leong, Wey (Ryerson University), recipient country : CA, recipient province : nan, recipient city : Ontario, recipient postal code : nan, program name english : Discovery Grants Program - Individual, program name french : Programme de subventions à la découverte - individuelles, program purpose english : A key technology in energy efficiency and conservation is a thermal energy storage system. It often helps to reduce the mismatch between demand and supply of thermal energy in a system, thereby improving its efficiency. Thus, a ground thermal energy storage (GTES), readily available under a building, backyard or front yard, can play an important role in the future to combat climate change, reduce fossil fuel consumption, and increase renewable energy utilization. The technology can also be extended to communities through district heating systems, as is the case at the one-of-a-kind Drake Landing Solar Community in Okotoks, Alberta. Here, 90% of residential space heating needs for 52 houses have been met since 2007 by retrieving solar energy stored during the summer season from a high-temperature (up to 80&deg;C) ground thermal energy store. The equivalent reduction is approximately 39 GJ of heating energy (or 1,050 m 3 of natural gas) and 2 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per home, per year. In order to widely use such technology in Canada and the world, a reliable tool is required to simulate and design an optimized system in the most energy- and cost-efficient way. The proposed research will develop such a reliable and powerful computer software tool. The software program will have the capability to simulate the complex nature of coupled heat and water movement in the ground, as well as phase change process of phase change materials (PCMs) around ground heat exchangers, such that an appropriate sizing of a ground thermal energy storage system can be achieved - that is, it will be able to match the demand (e.g., heating for buildings) and supply (e.g., solar energy from solar collectors) of thermal energy over a typical service life of 20 years or longer. To meet this objective, experiment and modeling work will be required to validate or model the theory of coupled heat and moisture movement in soils and soil thermal properties. Once developed and validated, all the models will be implemented into a computer program for studying different GTES systems, including ground source heat pump (GSHP), hybrid GSHP, and high-temperature GTES systems., program purpose french : A key technology in energy efficiency and conservation is a thermal energy storage system. It often helps to reduce the mismatch between demand and supply of thermal energy in a system, thereby improving its efficiency. Thus, a ground thermal energy storage (GTES), readily available under a building, backyard or front yard, can play an important role in the future to combat climate change, reduce fossil fuel consumption, and increase renewable energy utilization. The technology can also be extended to communities through district heating systems, as is the case at the one-of-a-kind Drake Landing Solar Community in Okotoks, Alberta. Here, 90% of residential space heating needs for 52 houses have been met since 2007 by retrieving solar energy stored during the summer season from a high-temperature (up to 80&deg;C) ground thermal energy store. The equivalent reduction is approximately 39 GJ of heating energy (or 1,050 m 3 of natural gas) and 2 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per home, per year. In order to widely use such technology in Canada and the world, a reliable tool is required to simulate and design an optimized system in the most energy- and cost-efficient way. The proposed research will develop such a reliable and powerful computer software tool. The software program will have the capability to simulate the complex nature of coupled heat and water movement in the ground, as well as phase change process of phase change materials (PCMs) around ground heat exchangers, such that an appropriate sizing of a ground thermal energy storage system can be achieved - that is, it will be able to match the demand (e.g., heating for buildings) and supply (e.g., solar energy from solar collectors) of thermal energy over a typical service life of 20 years or longer. To meet this objective, experiment and modeling work will be required to validate or model the theory of coupled heat and moisture movement in soils and soil thermal properties. Once developed and validated, all the models will be implemented into a computer program for studying different GTES systems, including ground source heat pump (GSHP), hybrid GSHP, and high-temperature GTES systems., agreement title english : Experimental Study, Modelling and Design of High-Temperature Ground Thermal Energy Storage for Achieving Energy Efficient Building Energy Systems, agreement title french : Experimental Study, Modelling and Design of High-Temperature Ground Thermal Energy Storage for Achieving Energy Efficient Building Energy Systems, agreement number : RGPIN, agreement value : 110000.0, agreement start date : 2017-05-10, agreement end date : nan, description english : nan, description french : nan, expected results english : nan, expected results french : nan, additional information english : Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2022-2023), additional information french : Subvention ou bourse octroyée s'appliquant à plus d'un exercice financier. (2017-2018 à 2022-2023), owner organization : nserc-crsng, owner organization title : Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada | Conseil de recherches en sciences naturelles et en génie du Canada