Energy Storage for

Power Systems
Lecture 4
1

Thermal Energy Storage (TES)

2

Introduction

Methods of Thermal Energy Storage

Sensible Heat Storage

Phase Change Energy Storage

TES for solar power plants

Thermal Energy Storage (TES)

3

Introduction

Introduction

Developing efficient and inexpensive energy storage devices is as

important as developing new sources of energy.
The thermal energy storage (TES) can be defined as:
the temporary storage of thermal energy at high or low
temperatures

Thermal Energy Storage (TES)

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Introduction

Introduction
Characteristics of TES
Improves
performance of energy systems
smoothing supply and increasing reliability

by

The need for the storage of solar energy can not be

avoided as it is periodic source of energy

Have energy losses with time (not like Hydrogen )

Denser materials with high thermal capacity is

desirable for its small volume

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Introduction

The first-law efficiency of thermal energy storage

systems can be defined as the ratio of the energy
extracted from the storage to the energy stored into it
Maximum
temperature during
discharge

Maximum
temperature during
the charge

Minimum
temperature during
discharge

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Methods of Thermal Energy Storage

Methods of Thermal Energy Storage

1. Sensible heat storage
Heating a liquid or a solid without changing the
phase

2. Latent heat storage

Heating a material which undergoes a phase
change (Usually melting)

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Sensible Heat storage

Sensible Heat storage

Liquids for heat storage
Water (bellow 100C), heat transfer
oils, certain inorganic molten salts.
Solids for heat storage
Rocks, pebbles, refractory where
materials is collected in form of
porous media in a backed bed and
heat is stored by the flow of gas or
liquid in the voids

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Sensible Heat storage

Liquid storage media

Water is stored in tanks made of steel, concrete or fiberglass.
These tanks is to be isolated with materials like glass wool,
mineral wool or polyurethane.
Heat transfer oils like Dowtherm and Therminol are used in
storage of intermediate temperature ranges of 100 to 300C.
Heat transfer oils have disadvantages of:
Degradation ( )with time
possibility of ignition above their flash point.
High cost.
Inorganic salts have been considered for high temperatures
(300C and above).

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Sensible Heat storage

Liquid storage media

Advantages of water use in sensible heat storage.

1. Water is inexpensive, easy to handle, non-toxic, non-combustible

and widely available.
2. Water has a comparatively high specific heat and high density
3. Heat exchangers may be avoided if water is used as the heat
carrier in the collector.
4. Natural convection flows can be utilized when pumping energy is
scarce.
5. Simultaneous charging and discharging of the storage tank is
possible.
6. Adjustment and control of a water system is variable and flexible.

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Sensible Heat storage

Liquid storage media

Disadvantages of water use in sensible heat storage.

Water might freeze or boil

Water is highly corrosive
Working temperatures are limited to less than 100C and
often have to be far below this boiling temperature.
Water is difficult to stratify.

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Sensible Heat storage

Solid storage media

Energy can be stored in rocks or
pebbles packed in insulated
vessels.
This type of storage is used very
often
for
temperatures
up
to100C in conjunction with solar
air heaters.
Rock or pebble-bed storages can
also be used for much higher
temperatures up to 1000C.

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Sensible Heat storage

Solid storage media

The difficulties and limitations relative to liquids can be
avoided by using solid materials for storing thermal energy as
sensible heat.
larger amounts of solids are needed than using water, due to
the fact that solids, in general, exhibit a lower storing capacity
than water.
The cost of the storage media per unit energy stored is,
however, still acceptable for rocks.

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Sensible Heat storage

Solid storage media

Advantages of rocks in heat storage

Rocks are not toxic and non-flammable

Rocks are inexpensive

Rocks act both as heat transfer surface and storage

medium

The heat transfer between air and a rock bed is good, due
to the very large heat transfer area, and the effective heat
conductance of the rock pile is low, due to the small area of
contact between the rocks. Then the heat losses from the
pile are low.

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Sensible Heat storage

Solid storage media

Magnesium oxide (magnesia), aluminum oxide (alumina) and
silicone oxide are refractory ( ) materials, and they
are also suitable for high-temperature sensible heat storage.
Bricks made of magnesia have been used in many countries
for many years for storing heat.

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Latent Heat storage

Latent heat storage

In latent heat storage the principle is that when heat is
applied to the material it changes its phase from solid to
liquid by storing the heat as latent heat of fusion or from liquid
to vapor as latent heat of vaporization.

Heat storage through phase change has the advantage of

compactness, since the latent heat of fusion of most
materials is very much larger than their specific heat.
For example, the ratio of latent heat to specific heat of water
is 80, which means that the energy required to melt one
kilogram of ice is 80 times more than that required to raise
the temperature of one kilogram of water one degree Celsius.

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Latent Heat storage

Latent heat storage

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Latent Heat storage

Latent heat storage

Any latent heat thermal energy storage system should have at
least the following three components:

A suitable phase change material (PCM) in the desired

temperature range,

A containment for the storage substance,

A suitable heat carrying fluid for transferring the heat

effectively from the heat source to the heat storage

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Latent Heat storage

Latent heat storage

Due to its high cost, latent heat storage is more likely to find
application when:
1. High energy density or high volumetric energy capacity is desired,
2. The load is such that energy is required at a constant temperature
or within a small range of temperatures, or
3. The storage size is small. Smaller storage has higher surface area
to volume ratio and therefore cost of packing is high. Compactness
is then very important in order to limit the containment costs.
Similarly, heat losses are also more or less proportional to the
surface area. Compactness is also an important factor to limit the
heat losses in storages of small capacities.

Thermal Energy Storage (TES)

TES for solar power plants

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TES for solar power plants

Importance?
an output management tool to elongate operation after
sunset, to shift energy sales from off-peak hours to high
revenue peak demand hours, and to contribute to
guaranteed output;
an internal plant buffer, smoothing out insolation changes
for steadying cycle operation, and for operational
requirements
such
as
covering steam
production,
component pre-heating and freeze protection.

Thermal Energy Storage (TES)

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TES for solar power plants

Discharging
Charging

Sun rise

Sun set

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Thermal Energy Storage (TES)

TES for solar power plants

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the number of thermal kilowatt-hours per cubic meter

(kWht/m3 ) is used here, since container volume and
pumping power are the basic cost factors

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Single Versus Dual Medium Concepts

In a single medium storage system,
the HTF is at the same time the storage
medium
If the
liquid
has
low
thermal
conductivity and permits good thermal
stratification,
such
as
water and
thermal oil, the one-tank thermocline
concept requires the least tank volume
since the hot and cold medium are
contained in a single vessel.

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Single Versus Dual Medium Concepts

When thermal conductivity is
higher, as in molten salts or
sodium, a rapid balancing of the
temperatures in the hot and cold
regions
takes
place,
making
separate hot and cold tanks
necessary. Since in that case twice
as much tank volume as
fluid
content is required

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Single Versus Dual Medium Concepts

Dual medium concepts employ a storage medium that is
different from the HTF because the storage medium usually solid - is cheaper than the transfer fluid
The transfer medium exchanges its heat in direct or
indirect contact with the storage medium

Have the disadvantage of a drop in temperature between

charging and discharging due to the intermediate heat
exchange

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State-of-the-art

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Thermal Storage for Oil-Cooled Solar Plants

Thermal, synthetic and silicone oils, with operating
temperatures from 300C to over 400C, are of particular
interest as heat transfer media for thermal SPP. Unlike
water/steam, oils do not require high-pressure piping, nor
have they freezing problems as with sodium or molten salt.
The 5 MWht capacity one-tank thermocline storage
system, operated with 114 m3 of thermal oil at
temperatures between 225 and 295C, was successfully
tested at the IEA-SSPS project in Almeria, Spain, and
demonstrated a 92% roundtrip efficiency and excellent
thermocline stratification.

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Thermal Storage for Oil-Cooled Solar Plants

two tank oil storage system at SEGS I, Daggett/CA, operating between

241C and 307C (courtesy of LUZ IntI. Ltd. Los Angeles/CA, USA)

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Thermal Storage for Molten Salt-Cooled

Solar Plants
Molten salts are favoured central receiver coolants
because of their high volume heat capacity, low vapor
pressure, good heat transfer and low cost, which makes
them economical enough to be used as a large bulk
storage medium while their thermodynamic properties
permit compact and efficient receivers.

The storage tanks must be hydraulically separated from

the receiver loop by an intermediate heat exchanger,

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Thermal Storage for Molten Salt-Cooled

Solar Plants

cylindrical hot tank concept for molten nitrate salt storage with corrugated liner
(courtesy of SERl, Boulder/CO, USA) .

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Thermal Storage for Molten Salt-Cooled

Solar Plants

conical hot tank concept for molten nitrate salt storage with flat stainless steel liner
(courtesy of Solar Energy Research Institute (SERI), Boulder/CO, USA), (courtesy