Sensible thermal energy storage

In the first chapter of this book, various energy storage technologies and methods were discussed. It was explained why thermal energy storage (TES), both heat and cold in short- and long-term storage purposes and from small-scale to very large­scale uses, is also as important as electricity storage. In Chapter 1, various methods and classes of TES, that is, sensible TES (STES), latent TES (LTES), and thermo­chemical TES (TCTES), were briefly introduced. Due to the critical role of any of these TES classes in the decarbonization of energy systems and the extensive infor­mation required to introduce each of these methods and their subclasses, four chap­ters of this book are devoted to TES technologies, including one specific chapter for each of the TES classes, plus one more chapter for diving into the details of seasonal TES technologies independent of the storage class. The current chapter will present a very thorough report on STES, its scientific principles, its various subclasses, the history of its development, and its state of the art. In addition, the chapter presents a detailed energy analysis model of various STES methods fol­lowed by an overall exergy modeling part. To see how these models could be used for analyzing STES systems from energetic and exergetic points of view and how the results of the assessments could be presented to the scientific community, one case study analysis section is also provided in the chapter. Finally, a debate on how we see the future of STES methods from scientific and practical perspectives is brought up and some sorts of interesting topics of research and developments on STES systems are suggested.