Comparison of prices for high-temperature resistant energy storage containers

How much does a high temperature sensible thermal energy storage system cost?

Table 1. High temperature sensible thermal energy storage system studies for CSP plants. For DMT systems, Pacheco et al. (2002) reported a specific cost of 21 US$/kWh th (i.e. the total cost of TES divided by the storage capacity) for a DMT tank filled with Quartzite compared to a 30 US$/kWh th specific cost in two-tank molten salt systems.

Do alternative thermal energy storage systems have a techno-economic advantage?

We propose herein that the true techno-economic advantage (or lack thereof) of choosing alternative TES systems should be judged by a ‘normalized cost of thermal energy storage (NCOTES)’ which normalizes the cost of storage systems with regards to their annual electricity generation capacity.

How much does a thermal energy storage system cost?

At present, considering an average storage cost of 22 US$/kWh th for the commercial thermal energy storage system in CSP plants, the cost of TES systems for utility scale applications is still ∼30–150 times lower than that of electricity storage systems ( Lai and McCulloch, 2017, Luo et al., 2015 ).

Should a normalized cost of thermal energy storage be used?

Hence, this study suggests that a normalized cost of thermal energy storage (NCOTES), which takes into account both cost and performance of the systems at the same time should be used. This is a normalized cost of the storage units with regard to their potential of electricity generation in CSP plants.