Thermal energy storage comprises a number of technologies that store thermal energy in energy storage reservoirs for later use. They can be employed to balance energy demand between day time and night time. The thermal reservoir may be maintained at a temperature above (hotter) or below (colder) that of the ambient environment. The applications today include the production of ice, chilled water, or eutectic solution at night, or hot water which is then used to cool / heat environments during the day.
Thermal energy is often accumulated from active solar collector or more often combined heat and power plants, and transferred to insulated repositories for use later in various applications, such as space heating, domestic or process water heating.
Read more about Thermal Energy Storage: Solar Energy Storage, Economics, Water Storage in Tanks or Rock Caverns, Heat Storage in Hot Rocks, Concrete, Pebbles Etc, Electric Thermal Storage Heaters, Ice-based Technology, Cryogenic Energy Storage, Molten Salt Technology, Research
Famous quotes containing the words energy and/or storage:
“The welfare, the happiness, the energy and spirit of the men and women who do the daily work ... is the underlying necessity of all prosperity.... There can be nothing wholesome unless their life is wholesome; there can be no contentment unless they are contented.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“Many of our houses, both public and private, with their almost innumerable apartments, their huge halls and their cellars for the storage of wines and other munitions of peace, appear to me extravagantly large for their inhabitants. They are so vast and magnificent that the latter seem to be only vermin which infest them.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)