A novel high-temperature water cooling system utilizing cascaded cold energy from underground water plants in northern China

In alignment to China's ambitious ‘Dual Carbon' strategy and the urgent need to address energy shortages, optimizing energy consumption in air conditioning systems has become a critical imperative in thermal engineering.This study introduces an innovative high-temperature water cooling system that leverages cascaded cold energy from underground water plants in northern China. Initially, the DeST software was utilized to simulate and quantify the hourly cooling load and annual cooling consumption of a representative building. Subsequently, based on these simulation results, a comprehensive case study was conducted on an air conditioning project in Jinan city, Shandong Province, to rigorously analyze the proposed system's performance in terms of energy efficiency, economic feasibility, and environmental impact.The results demonstrate significant improvements over conventional air conditioning systems: a 24.6 % increase in energy efficiency, corresponding to a reduction of 4.7 kWh/m2 in energy consumption and cost savings of 2.5 CNY/m2. The economic viability of the system extends to a radius of 3.5 km from the underground water plant. Projections for a typical cooling season indicate potential electricity savings of approximately 691,000.0 kWh, translating to emission reductions of 691.0 tons of CO2, 20.7 tons of SO2, and 10.4 tons of NOx.