Thermal Energy Storage

Thermal energy storage is simply the storage of energy as heat. This can be observed in its simplest form as an insulated hot water tank.

As renewable energy generation increases – from sources such as wind and solar power – there’s increased opportunity to decarbonise (but only when the wind is blowing or the sun is shining).

Thermal energy storage technologies enable storage of power generated by intermittent renewables, so it can be used when required.

Batteries store electricity but are expensive at large scale and their efficiency declines each time they are used.

It charges with low-cost renewable energy when prices are low and stores it as heat, in our proprietary technology, providing high-temperature air output to an energy recovery system.

That air output can also be used to provide combined heat and power (including clean steam).

A great number of industries rely on process heat, for mineral processing and manufacturing (and the vast majority of those industries rely heavily on fossil fuels to produce the heat they require).

SiBox however, is a viable replacement for fossil fuels and can provide industry with an affordable, reliable, decarbonised, ultra-high-temperature heat 24/7.

SiBox’s long duration energy storage can also help stabilise the energy grid and high-temperature heat can be used to produce hydrogen (a goal we’re working towards with our SiPHyR™ technology).

Sensible storage: energy is stored by heating a storage medium and maintaining its state in solid or liquid form. Energy is released and recovered by cooling the storage medium. This type of energy storage is ‘sensible’ because the heating and cooling can be sensed as a temperature change in the storage medium. Typical sensible storage media are: water, air, oil, rocks, brine (and other molten salts), concrete, sand or soil.

Phase change storage/ ‘latent heat’ storage: energy is stored by heating a storage medium through its transition from solid to liquid, or from liquid to gas.  Energy is released and recovered by extracting heat from the storage medium. Phase change storage, often also called ‘latent heat’ storage is latent, or hidden, because the storage material’s temperature does not change throughout the phase change. These storage materials include water/ice, paraffin, molten salts, metallic elements (e.g. silicon as in our SiBrick) and alloys.

Thermochemical storage: a thermochemical storage material absorbs energy in the form of heat, and splits into two physically separable chemical compounds. The recombination of these two compounds into the thermochemical storage material releases heat for energy recovery. Salt hydrates are the primary example of this energy storage technology.