Thermal storage

Popular mechanics
Letter by a person describing how he takes a galvanised tank and raps it in fiber glass. Finally sheets of polystyrene is rapped around the fiber glass enabling a storage tank that keeps hot water at the same temperature for two weeks.

ziroth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9XMWHFzPs8 Rondo Energy have recently received millions of dollars in investments for their thermal battery which uses superheated bricks. When heating is required, they make much more sense than lithium-ion batteries as they are cheaper, use no critical materials, last longer, and are just as efficient. Therefore, the Rondo heat battery can end battery storage as an option for heat applications. https://rondo.com/, https://newatlas.com/energy/rondo-heat-battery-brick-toaster/, https://patents.google.com/patent/US20220170386A1/en

rocks 10 to 700 degrees
http://helioscsp.com/novel-concentrated-solar-power-design-combines-the-solar-receiver-with-thermal-energy-storage/ Due to the novel design of directly radiative heat transfer as well as circulation flow, their design facilitates a higher temperature process, with a good solar to exergy conversion ratio (how much thermal energy can be converted to power) of 52% and charging and discharging efficiencies well beyond 99% and 92% at 770°C.

The rocks/heated air combination allows for a much wider working temperature range than current CSP. Molten salt storage, the state of the art commercially, is good at transferring heat, but it has a working temperature range between from 290°C – 560°C from its coldest to hottest (it mustn’t get hotter or it becomes unstable about around 600°C).

Because the rocks are solar heated from outdoor air temperature (so from say 10°C to around 700°C) the result is a much greater working range, resulting in a much higher efficiency, making for lower cost electricity production.

https://www.solarpaces.org/australian-researchers-assess-the-commercial-viability-of-solar-alumina-calcining/

firebrick storage
https://progrss.com/sustainability/20170924/firebrick-footprint-century-later/ Developed as early as 1600 BC in what is modern-day Turkey, firebricks – which are essentially bricks made of clay capable of withstanding high temperatures – are being eyed by scientists for thermal heat storage.

http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2017/ph240/hallock1/

sand
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264935189_Sand_as_a_Heat_Storage_Media_for_a_Solar_Application_Simulation_Results

Amadeus
Starting in January 2017, AMADEUS (www.amadeus-project.eu) is the first project funded by the European Commission to research on a new generation of materials and solid state devices for ultra-high temperature energy storage and conversion. By exploring storage temperatures well beyond 1000 ºC the project aims at breaking the mark of ~ 600ºC rarely exceeded by current state of the art TES (thermal energy storage) systems. AMADEUS Project, through a collaborative research between seven European partners, aims to create new PCMs (phase change materials) based on silicon and boron alloys with latent heats in the range of 1000-2000 kWh/m3, an order of magnitude greater than that of conventional molten salts used in CSP (concentrated solar power). Also, a new kind of solid-state device, the hybrid thermionic-photovoltaic converter, will be developed for heat to power conversion at very high temperatures in the range of 1000-2000 ºC. The final objective of the project is to develop a new kind of extremely compact energy storage device that will eventually lead to a new generation of modular CSP systems, new electricity storage devices for the housing and district sectors, or new systems for grid-scale storage applications. https://zenodo.org/communities/amadeus-737054/?page=1&size=20

http://www.amadeus-project.eu/publications.html

https://zenodo.org/record/1289792#.W5J74xi6LM0

Underwater energy bags
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktup6CAvfGo

cryogenic storage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDvlh_aG7iA

Hydrolic storage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3p_daUDvI8 Cut a huge cylindrical rock and lift it out of the ground with water. As it sags back under gravity it converts potential into kinetic energy.

Kinetic storage
https://stornetic.com/

greenhouse
http://solarenergyengineering.asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/article.aspx?articleid=2695484 pipe under ground for slow thermal release.

links
Air Engine, Solar sintering, solar

http://www.solardishsystem.com/