COSTS OF THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGIES

Abstract

Thermal accumulation facilities allow energy to be available in the absence of sunlight. This fact reduces the difficulty of the intermittence in the incidence of the king star in our planet. Thermal accumulation technology also contributes to  smooth the fluctuations in energy demand during different times of the day. This contribution identifies the nations with the most favorable research results in this area; as well as the main research lines that are being developed today. A compendium of various thermal energy storage materials, their current costs per unit mass, and their physical properties are presented. Techniques for implementing thermal accumulation technologies can be classified as areas of high, medium and low temperature. In the high temperature area, inorganic materials such as nitrate salts are the most widely used thermal energy storage materials, while in the medium and lower temperature areas; organic materials such as
commercial paraffin are more common. Currently, one of the research trends in this area are the projects aimed at optimizing the chemical and physical characteristics of thermal storage materials, because the success of any thermos-energetic storage technology has a strong dependence on the cost of the materials selected for thermal storage.