A UKERC Research Report looking at the future role of thermal storage in the UK energy system; assessing the technical feasability and factors influencing adoption.
The aims of the work undertaken were:
- To characterise the main areas of heat use in the UK and the magnitude of the primaryenergy used
- To describe the main characteristics of the different technologies and approaches available for thermal energy storage and provide examples of their availability, deployment and demonstration
- To review current thermal energy storage system research to determine key characteristics, costs, maturity and additional research requirements
- To identify key application areas for thermal energy storage in the UK based on a national target for an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050
- When combined with large scale deployment of electric air source heat pumps, to explore the potential for peak grid load balancing and the magnitude of thermal energy storage that could be achieved on a distributed basis
