Why do we need energy storage systems?

Among renewable energies, wind and solar are inherently intermittent and therefore both require efficient energy storage systems to facilitate a round-the-clock electricity production at a global scale.

What are the chemical requirements for heat storage materials?

Chemical requirements are very similar for sensible and latent heat storage materials ( Table 2 ). Candidate materials should have long-term chemical stability, no chemical decomposition, should be compatible with the container materials and the HTF, non-toxic and non-flammable, and they should present no phase segregation.

What is high temperature thermal energy storage?

High temperature thermal energy storage offers a huge energy saving potential in industrial applications such as solar energy, automotive, heating and cooling, and industrial waste heat recovery. However, certain requirements need to be faced in order to ensure an optimal performance, and to further achieve widespread deployment.

What should NREL consider when testing energy storage systems?

Photo by Owen Roberts, NREL Considerations for energy storage system testing include the following. If cost-justified by a large purchase, consider qualification testing of battery systems. Include test conditions in specifications for battery O&M diagnostics and testing.

What are open standards for solar monitoring systems?

As it relates to the quality of the solar monitoring system, open standards are applied at four levels: Information access to the data store from applications. High-quality monitoring systems can be built with proprietary methods that encourage lock-in to a single vendor.

Do energy storage products need periodic maintenance?

The requirements for periodic maintenance for energy storage products should be identified by the OEM (IEEE 2010). In settings where predictive analytics maintenance is economical, guidance should also be available from the manufacturer that identifies methodologies for assessing when a product may be approaching a failure mode.