Small scale thermal energy storage

What is thermal energy storage?

Thermal Energy Storage (TES) can store thermal energy directly and at a large capacity. The most common TES systems are direct sensible, latent heat, and thermo-chemical storages. Their energy source is either solar thermal or industrial waste heat, where the end-use of these systems is for heating, drying and cooling purposes .

What is an energy storage system?

An energy storage system (ESS) for electricity generation uses electricity (or some other energy source, such as solar-thermal energy) to charge an energy storage system or device, which is discharged to supply (generate) electricity when needed at desired levels and quality. ESSs provide a variety of services to support electric power grids.

How many MWh can a thermal energy storage system store?

The baseline system is designed for economical storage of up to a staggering 26,000 MWh of thermal energy. With modular design, storage capacity can be scaled up or down with relative ease.

Why do we need thermal storage systems?

By decoupling heating and cooling demands from electricity consumption, thermal storage systems allow the integration of greater shares of variable renewable generation, such as solar and wind power. They can also reduce the peak electricity demand and the need for costly grid reinforcements, and even help in balancing seasonal demand.

How do thermal energy storage systems work?

Installations employ storage vessels in a “cascaded” design. In this implementation, PCMs that melt at different temperatures are sourced to fully store energy at different levels of thermal input . On the smaller scale (mW), there has been significantly less work to develop thermal energy storage systems.

Are low cost mechanical additives effective in small scale thermal storage systems?

Devices were constructed to examine the tendencies and effectiveness of low cost mechanical additives to the small scale thermal storage system. Particular attention was paid to the ease of assembly as well as the final outcome and operation of the TES device. These efforts also served as the experimental validation of subsequent modeling efforts.