• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.51 no.1
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• pp.67-76
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• 2018

This study reviews three eco-friendly energy towns with hybrid thermal energy supply systems and borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) in Canada and Denmark. The district heating and cooling systems were designed by using multi-source energy for the higher efficiency and reliability as well as environment. ADEU (Alexandra District Energy Utility) located at the developing area in the city of Richmond, Canada was designed to supply district energy with the installation of 726 borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) and a backup boiler using natural gas. DLSC (Drake Landing Solar Community) located in the town of Okotoks, Canada is a district system to store solar thermal energy underground during the summer season by seasonal BTES with 144 BHEs. Brædstrup Solpark district heating system located in Denmark has been conducted energy supply from multiple energy sources of solar thermal, heat pump, boiler plants and seasonal BTES with 48 BHEs. These systems are designed based on social and economic benefits as well as nature-friendly living space according to the city based energy perspective. Each system has the energy center which distribute the stored thermal energy to each house for heating during the winter season. The BHE depth and ground thermal storage volume are designed by the heating and cooling load as well as the condition of ground water flow and thermophysical properties of the ground. These systems have been proved the reliance and economic benefits by providing consistent energy supply with competitive energy price for many years. In addition, the several expansions of the service area in ADEU and Brædstrup Solpark have been processed based on energy supply master plan. In order to implement this kind of project in our country, the regulation and policy support of government or related federal organization are required. As well as the government have to make a energy management agency associated with long-term supply energy plan.