Thermal energy is utilized as an environmentally friendly energy source for seasonal heat and cold storage on a global scale. Specifically, the aquifer thermal energy storage system is highlighted for being cost-effective in cooling and heating applications. The study assesses the sustainability of the aquifer thermal energy storage in the Halabja-Khurmal sub-basin by evaluating six critical criteria: groundwater transmissivity, groundwater temperature, groundwater discharge, groundwater chemistry, population density, and per capita GDP. A multi-criteria decision analysis judgment is applied to analyze all criteria, resulting in a consistency ratio of 0.3% in the analytical hierarchy process. Consequently, the sustainability map for Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage in the Halabja-Khurmal sub-basin for heating reveals that 26.45% of the area is strongly sustainable located in the north and southwestern part of the sub-basin, 73.53% is moderate in the east, central, southeast, and southern regions, 0.02% is weakly sustainable as a tiny area in the southwestern. On the other hand, the sustainability map for Aquifer Thermal Energy Storage in the Halabja-Khurmal sub-basin for cooling reveals that 19% of the area is strongly sustainable located in the north, and southwestern parts of the sub-basin, 78% is moderate in the northeast, east, southeast, west, central, and southern regions, 3% is weakly sustainable as spots in the west and southwestern areas. 

Condensation irrigation (CI) combines desalination with subsurface irrigation. Here, solar stills are used to heat and humidity air, which is condensed in underground drainage pipes to irrigate the soil, directly in the root zone. This article describes and evaluates a CI field test at Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz in Iran. The objective was to gain a deeper understanding of the CI system in the production of drinking and irrigation water and to do a detailed assessment of heat and moisture transfer in the soil. Perforated and unperforated PVC pipes were used in two separate experiments while airflow properties, soil temperature and humidity, and ambient air temperature were monitored. The system produced 6 kg of irrigation water during eight hours, in the 25 m long pipe. When using an unperforated pipe, 4 kg of freshwater was collected at the pipe ending after eight hours of operation. The preliminary economic analysis of irrigation system indicates a payback time of less than 6 years.

Using the ground as a seasonal thermal energy store is referred to as underground thermal energy storage (UTES). In the vast majority of cases, there are only two basic methods of exchanging thermal energy with the ground: through advection in aquifers using wells and conduction using boreholes. They are referred to as aquifer thermal energy storage and borehole thermal energy storage. While heat pumps (HPs) or chillers are not always used in conjunction with UTES, it is the most common application since most buildings have both heating and cooling loads. In designing HP systems for moderate to large size buildings, it is often the case that the cooling demand is larger than the heating thermal energy demand over the year for large buildings; occasionally it is reversed. In addition, community systems with single-family houses and small residential buildings might have a heating-dominated energy demand. This chapter is largely devoted to the former; however, some notable exceptions are discussed as well.

Ice and snow have been used for cooling since ancient times. Plato mentions that ice was harvested in the mountains during the winter and stored in thermally insulated buildings for cooling in the summer. Sir John Chardin reports in his “Travels in Persia 1673–1677” how ice is produced, stored, and sold for cooling of drinks in the summer

There is a global attention that the future energy systems will be based on renewable energy like solar and wind. The large-scale utilization of renewables in space heating and cooling requires large Thermal Energy Storage TES to overcome the varying supply and demand. The process of producing the best Underground Thermal Energy Storage UTES system pass through two steps: first, finding the best type of UTES system, second, finding the best locations to install UTES system. Both of these two steps depend extremely on the site specific parameters such that the depth to the groundwater, transmissivity, type of soil, the depth to the bedrock, and seepage velocity. The purpose of this paper is to explain some of the site specific parameters that the type of UTES-system depends on and explain the suitable type of UTES systems. This study considers Babylon province (Iraq) as study area. This province has electricity deficiency due to Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning HVAC applications. The methodology of this study includes reviewing the literature that consider the study area, and using Arc Map/GIS to visualize some of the in-site parameters. The results indicate that the best type of UTES system for the considered region is either aquifer or pit type, due to the type of the soil and the depth to the crystalline bedrock. The hydraulic conductivity and the seepage velocity in the considered region are (0.0023–2.5) m/d and (1.3 × 10−6 – 3.45 × 10−3) m/d respectively. These conditions satisfy the standards which regard aquifer type.

The unbalance between supply and demand of heat can be managed by thermal energy storage (TES). For large-scale systems the underground is used as storage medium or storage volume. Aquifer storage (ATES) is most suitable for very large applications, Borehole storage (BTES) the most general system in all scales and the rock cavern storage (CTES) is best suited for extremely high loading/extraction loads. The construction of any of these systems requires knowledge about site-specific properties of the ground i.e. geology and groundwater conditions. Current paper gives a brief review of the potential and advantage of Underground Thermal Energy Storage (UTES) technology utilization in buildings for the hard 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 here

Underground thermal energy storage (UTES) systems are widely used around the world, due to their relations to heating ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) applications [1]. To achieve the required objectives of these systems, the best design of these systems should be accessed first. The process of determining the best design for any UTES system has two stages, the type selection stage and the site selection stage. In the type selection stage, the best sort of UTES system is determined. There are six kinds of UTES systems, they are: boreholes, aquifer, bit, tank, tubes in clay, and cavern [2–5]. The selection of a particular type depends on three groups of parameters. They are: Site specific, design, and operation parameters (Figure 1). Apart from site specific parameters, the other two types can be changed through the life time of the system. The site specific parameters, e.g., geological, hydrogeological, and metrological, cannot be changed during the service period of the  ystem. Therefore, the design of the best type should depend, at first consideration, on site specific parameters.

Carbon dioxide (CO₂) and other greenhouse gases (GHG) are considered the main cause of many environmental issues that lead to climate change and global warming. Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is a promising sustainable method used for decreasing CO2 emissions. Nevertheless, for the CCS technology to be effectively put into use, some aspects should be taken into account, namely cost, capacity and durability of storage. In this paper, different CCS methods are described and the work proposes an alternative way of storing CO2 (and energy) using large-scale dry storage of biomass. The main advantage of suggested carbon storage system is that has no operation cost, and no need for maintenance and monitoring. By comparing the present project with other advanced and hi-tech projects, it is concluded that the proposed biomass storage is a cost-effective CCS technique. In the future, when the CO2 emissions are not seen as a global problem, this dry storage method enables recovery of stored wood for various purposes.