Thermal Energy Storage
Markets / Thermal Energy Storage
The greatest challenge to supplying our electricity needs through green energy sources, such as wind and solar, is the intermittency of supply. To overcome this issue, long-term energy storage solutions are needed.
While lithium-ion batteries provide an excellent solution to energy storage needs of four hours or less, longer term storage requires alternative solutions. These alternative solutions, such as air storage or pumped hydro have unique properties that lend each to a specific length of time or energy capacity best suited to them. IHI firmly believes that the most flexible and best alternative for long-term storage is thermal energy.
Thermal energy storage can easily be scaled to provide energy capacities ranging from 10 kilowatt hours to 10+ megawatt hours and stored for days and weeks at a time.
Working hand-in-hand with our IHI group companies, such as Steinmüller Engineering and Paul Wurth, IES can provide thermal energy storage solutions based upon molten salt, fixed beds, or fluidized beds as the energy storage medium.