Thermal Energy Storage - Heat Storage in Hot Rocks, Concrete, Pebbles Etc

Heat Storage in Hot Rocks, Concrete, Pebbles Etc

Water has one of the highest thermal capacities Heat capacity - 4.2 J/(cm³·K) whereas concrete has about one third of that. On the other hand concrete can be heated to much higher temperatures – 1200 °C by e.g. electrical heating and therefore has a much higher overall volumetric capacity. Thus in the example below, an insulated cube of about 2.8 m would appear to provide sufficient storage for a single house to meet 50 % of heating demand. This could in principle be used to store surplus wind or pv heat due to the ability of electrical heating to reach high temperatures. At the neighborhood level, the Wiggenhausen-Süd solar development at Friedrichshafen has received international attention. This features a 12,000 m³ (420,000 cu ft) reinforced concrete thermal store linked to 4,300 m² (46,000 sq ft) of solar collectors, which will supply the 570 houses with around 50 % of their heating and hot water.

Read more about this topic:  Thermal Energy Storage

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