Study of Different Latent Heat Storage Technologies Adequate for Application in the 1 MWe Fresnel CSP Plant Installed at Green Energy Park in Morocco

Like other renewables, solar energy is an intermittent resource. To guarantee a reliable electricity production using this renewable source of energy, concentrated solar power (CSP) plants are coupled with thermal energy storage (TES) technology. This combination is advantageous thanks to the low cost of TES compared to other storage methods (e.g. electrochemical storage). Heat can be stored in a sensible, latent or thermochemical form. Compared to sensible heat storage, which is the most mature TES technology, latent heat storage (LHS) enables higher storage energy density with a smaller temperature change. However, the application of phase change materials (PCM) as storage media for LHS systems is stained with the drawbacks of their low thermal conductivity. In this work, a review of the recent advances of LHS systems is conducted with an emphasis on the enhancement methods of PCMs thermal conductivity. Moreover, based on the previous literature review a selection methodology of suitable PCMs for medium temperature applications (100–300 °C) is described. Finally, using this selection procedure the adequate system and storage materials for the Fresnel solar system installed at Green Energy Park (1 MWe) are identified.