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Thermal Energy Storage Working Group

General Coordination: Esther Rojas, CIEMAT, Spain
If you are willing to participate in any of the following Activity Lines, do not hesitate to get in contact with the corresponding coordinator of the activity or with Esther Rojas (general coordinator)

Objective

Promoting collaboration on Thermal Energy Storage (TES) to improve its reliability, integration on CSP plants and to develop a common language.

Current Activity Lines

Characterization of Specific Equipment for Commercial TES

Coordinator: M. Rodriguez, CIEMAT, Spain
Motivation:

    • Components reliability is not proved before installing them at plants.
    • In commercial plants if one of these components presents a malfunction, it will just be repaired (often by component replacement)

      Aligned with task 6.4 of the European project SFERA-III
    • Dissemination activities funded by MOSAICO Project Towards the standardization of molten salt loops, instrumentation and components)

    Partners and facilities currently involved:

    Partner

    Facility

    Capability of testing

    MOSA

    BES-II

    Valves, flowmeters, HX, vertical pumps, pressure transducers

    TESIS

    Valves, flowmeters, parabolic trough receivers, pressure transducers

       

    Molten salt loop – lab-scale

    Valves, flowmeters, pressure transducers, strain gauges

    MOSE

    PCS

    Valves, flowmeters, parabolic trough receivers, flexible joints, pressure transducers

    NEWSOL Loop

    EMSP Platform

    Valves, flowmeters, pressure transducers, Heat tracing, Heating elements, HX, parabolic trough receivers

    Current status:

    Survey of R&D Activities on Thermal Storage Systems

    Coordinator: R. Bayón, CIEMAT, Spain
    Motivation: Promoting current research activities on TES by creating a database containing information of R&D activities in thermal storage developed by the participants
    Current Status: Survey of current participants updated 9/2022. (Next update: September 2024)

    Previous Activity Lines

    Storage Materials

    Coordinators: J. Nieto (Tecnalia/Spain), J. González (IMDEA Energía/Spain)
    Main Achievements: 3 Round Robin Tests performed:

    • Specific heat capacity of sensible materials (Solar salt with nanoparticles) 9 participants, including industry; Achieved agreement in accurately measuring cp with DSC, according to normalized methods ASTM E1269 and MDSCTM in the range of temperatures 200 and 400ºC (SolarPACES 2016).
    • Reaction enthalpy of thermochemical materials.
    • Cobalt oxide: 7 participants, including industry; there was no coherency and agreement in the results obtained by different partners (SolarPACES2016).
    • Perovskites: 7 participants; Some discrepancies in results (SolarPACES2018).

    Prototype Testing

    Coordinator: P. Garcia, CEA, France
    Main Achievements

    • Report  Definition of common procedures for testing thermal storage prototypes for STE plants (2016).