抄録
Underground thermal energy storage (UTES) has emerged as a cornerstone technology for enabling large-scale renewable energy integration, improving energy system flexibility, and supporting the decarbonization of heating and cooling sectors. Its long-term performance is fundamentally governed by the interactions among geological media, reservoir structures, and coupled thermal, hydraulic, mechanical, chemical, and biological processes operating across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Recent advances in aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES), borehole thermal energy storage (BTES), and cavern- and mine-based thermal energy storage (CTES/MTES) have substantially expanded their engineering applicability through improvements in storage efficiency, temperature adaptability, system integration, and subsurface monitoring technologies. This review presents a comprehensive synthesis of recent developments by establishing a unified analytical framework that integrates geological characterization, storage mechanisms, multiphysics coupling, engineering implementation, and performance evaluation. Representative UTES technologies are comparatively assessed with respect to geological suitability, thermal recovery efficiency, operational flexibility, geotechnical stability, environmental impacts, and technology maturity, while the governing thermo–hydro–mechanical–chemical–biological (THMCB) coupling processes controlling heat transport, reactive evolution, and reservoir behavior are critically examined. The review further identifies the principal scientific and engineering challenges limiting large-scale deployment, including thermal short-circuiting, mineral precipitation and clogging, geomechanical instability, microbial activity, geological uncertainty, long-term monitoring, and the absence of standardized techno-economic and life-cycle assessment frameworks. Finally, future research priorities are proposed, emphasizing physics-informed digital modeling, artificial intelligence-enabled predictive analysis, digital twin-assisted operation, integrated multi-energy systems, uncertainty quantification, and geoscience-informed optimization for next-generation UTES deployment. By bridging fundamental geoscientific processes with engineering implementation, this review provides a systematic research roadmap and decision framework for advancing the scientific understanding, technological innovation, and large-scale application of underground thermal energy storage.
