Site Selection Criteria of UTES Systems in Hot Climate

Underground Thermal Energy Storage UTES systems are widely used around the world. The reason is that UTES is essential in utilizing Renewable Energy sources (RE). The efficiency of the energy system relies strongly on the efficiency of the storage system. Therefore, in the installation of a hyper-energy system, a lot of attention is to be paid in improving the storage system. In order to design an efficient storage system, firstly, standard criteria are to be investigated. These explain the process of making high efficiency storage system that must be specified. The criteria, mainly, depends on: best type and best location. These two variables are in high interference with each other. The bond between the two variables is represented by the geological, hydrological, meteorological, soil, hydrogeological properties/factors of the site. These factors are specified by geo-energy mapping. Despite the importance of this type of mapping, there is no specific criteria/formula that defines the choice. This paper aims to: give a brief literature review for UTES systems (types, classification, advantages/disadvantages for each type, and examples of an installed system). In addition, some factors within geo-energy mapping are highlighted and standard criteria to achieve good storage system are suggested. The suggested criterion comprises a process to transfer the quantity values to quality values according to the expert opinion. The suggested criteria are defined through the following stages: selecting the best type of UTES systems according to hydro-geological in site conditions; using the analytical hierarchy process to rank the best location to install the storage system and then using ArcMap (GIS-Software) to provide representative results as maps. Karbala Province (Iraq) is the study area used her