Thermal energy storage

District heating accumulation tower from Theiss near Krems an der Donau in Lower Austria with a thermal capacity of 2 GWh
Thermal energy storage tower inaugurated in 2017 in Bozen-Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy.
Construction of the salt tanks at the Solana Generating Station, which provide thermal energy storage to allow generation during night or peak demand.[1][2] The 280 MW plant is designed to provide six hours of energy storage. This allows the plant to generate about 38 percent of its rated capacity over the course of a year.[3]

Thermal energy storage (TES) is the storage of thermal energy for later reuse. Employing widely different technologies, it allows surplus thermal energy to be stored for hours, days, or months. Scale both of storage and use vary from small to large – from individual processes to district, town, or region. Usage examples are the balancing of energy demand between daytime and nighttime, storing summer heat for winter heating, or winter cold for summer cooling (Seasonal thermal energy storage). Storage media include water or ice-slush tanks, masses of native earth or bedrock accessed with heat exchangers by means of boreholes, deep aquifers contained between impermeable strata; shallow, lined pits filled with gravel and water and insulated at the top, as well as eutectic solutions and phase-change materials.[4]

Other sources of thermal energy for storage include heat or cold produced with heat pumps from off-peak, lower cost electric power, a practice called peak shaving; heat from combined heat and power (CHP) power plants; heat produced by renewable electrical energy that exceeds grid demand and waste heat from industrial processes. Heat storage, both seasonal and short term, is considered an important means for cheaply balancing high shares of variable renewable electricity production and integration of electricity and heating sectors in energy systems almost or completely fed by renewable energy.[5][6][7][8]

  1. ^ Wright, Matthew; Hearps, Patrick; et al. (October 2010). "Australian Sustainable Energy: Zero Carbon Australia Stationary Energy Plan" (PDF). Energy Research Institute, University of Melbourne. p. 33.
  2. ^ Innovation in Concentrating Thermal Solar Power (CSP), RenewableEnergyFocus.com website.
  3. ^ Stern, Ray (10 October 2013). "Solana: 10 Facts You Didn't Know About the Concentrated Solar Power Plant Near Gila Bend". Phoenix New Times.
  4. ^ Saeed, R.M.; Schlegel, J.P.; Castano, C.; Sawafta, R. (2018). "Preparation and enhanced thermal performance of novel (solid to gel) form-stable eutectic PCM modified by nano-graphene platelets" (PDF). Journal of Energy Storage. 15: 91–102. Bibcode:2018JEnSt..15...91S. doi:10.1016/j.est.2017.11.003.
    Saeed, R.M.; Schlegel, J.P.; Castano, C.; Sawafta, R.; Kuturu, V. (2017). "Preparation and thermal performance of methyl palmitate and lauric acid eutectic mixture as phase change material (PCM)" (PDF). Journal of Energy Storage. 13: 418–424. Bibcode:2017JEnSt..13..418S. doi:10.1016/j.est.2017.08.005.
  5. ^ Jacobson, Mark Z.; Delucchi, Mark A.; Cameron, Mary A.; Frew, Bethany A. (2015). "Low-cost solution to the grid reliability problem with 100% penetration of intermittent wind, water, and solar for all purposes". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (49): 15060–5. Bibcode:2015PNAS..11215060J. doi:10.1073/pnas.1510028112. PMC 4679003. PMID 26598655.
  6. ^ Mathiesen, B.V.; Lund, H.; Connolly, D.; Wenzel, H.; Østergaard, P.A.; Möller, B.; Nielsen, S.; Ridjan, I.; Karnøe, P.; Sperling, K.; Hvelplund, F.K. (2015). "Smart Energy Systems for coherent 100% renewable energy and transport solutions". Applied Energy. 145: 139–54. Bibcode:2015ApEn..145..139M. doi:10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.01.075.
  7. ^ Henning, Hans-Martin; Palzer, Andreas (2014). "A comprehensive model for the German electricity and heat sector in a future energy system with a dominant contribution from renewable energy technologies—Part I: Methodology". Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. 30: 1003–18. Bibcode:2014RSERv..30.1003H. doi:10.1016/j.rser.2013.09.012.
  8. ^ Bauer, Thomas; Steinmann, Wolf-Dieter; Laing, Doerte; Tamme, Rainer (2012). "Thermal Energy Storage Materials and Systems". Annual Review of Heat Transfer. 15 (15): 131–177. doi:10.1615/AnnualRevHeatTransfer.2012004651. ISSN 1049-0787.