A review on cool thermal storage technologies and operating strategies

The thermal energy storage (TES) system for building cooling applications is a promising technology that is continuously improving. The TES system can balance the energy demand between the peak (daytimes) and off-peak hours (nights). The cool-energy is usually stored in the form of ice, phase change materials, chilled water or eutectic solution during the nighttimes and used in the daytime. A well-designed TES system would effectively decrease the electricity demand with a reasonable cost. This paper summarizes the findings, investigations and analysis of the TES systems for the space cooling applications. In this regards, different types of storage technologies, as well as various operating strategies, are discussed and some of the outstanding case studies are presented. Since the TES system can provide any portion of the required cooling load, the designer must focus on the best practical and economical solution, which is mainly influenced by localized parameters. It is evident that to improve the available designing standard, a sustainable investigation on localized parameters such as the electricity demand trend, the peak and off-peak hours, the climate change profiles, the electricity tariff rate and the system setup costs are still required. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.