Abstract

Thermal energy storage (TES) is an effective technology for reducing the infrastructure burden and generation and transmission inefficiencies that result from increasing peak electrical demands. Peak electrical demand very often results from a growing reliance on air-conditioning, a load that is directly addressed by thermal storage technologies. Additionally, renewable energy generation sources are often unpredictable or not coincident with their demand, diluting their value and increasing the real cost of renewable energy. TES is a proven technology in resolving the temporal conflict between energy availability and its demand, eliminating the need for expensive and infrequently used conventional power generation. The growing refinement of seasonal thermal storage capability also promises to dramatically reduce the energy demands for comfort conditioning in many parts of the world.