Concentrated solar thermal power generation is becoming a very attractive renewable energy production system among all the different renewable options, as it has have a better potential for dispatchability. This dispatchability is inevitably linked with an efficient and cost-effective thermal storage system. Thus, of all components, thermal storage is a key one. However, it is also one of the less developed. Only a few plants in the world have tested high. Concentrated solar thermal power generation is becoming a very attractive renewable energy production system among all the different renewable options, as it has have a better potential for dispatchability. This dispatchability is inevitably linked with an efficient and cost-effective thermal storage system. Thus, of all components, thermal storage is a key one. However, it is also one of the less developed. Only a few plants in the world have tested high temperature thermal energy storage systems. In this paper, the different storage concepts are reviewed and classified. All materials considered in literature or plants are listed. And finally, modellization of such systems is reviewed.••Solar power plantsHigh temperatureThermal energy storage (TES)MaterialsModellizationClassificationNowadays, carbon dioxide is responsible for more than 50% of the man-made greenhouse effect, making it the most important contributor to climate change. It is produced mainly by the burning of fossil fuels. Because of the time lapse between emissions and their effects, the full consequences of developing climate change have still to emerge over the coming decades, bringing increased danger to the stability of the world's economy and lifestyle.Solar thermal power involves hardly any of the polluting emissions or environmental safety concerns associated with conventional, fossil or nuclear-based power generation. There is very little pollution in the form of exhaust gases, dust or fumes. Most importantly, in terms of the global environment, there are no emissions of carbon dioxide in solar-only operation of a solar thermal plant—the main gas responsible for global climate change.Solar thermal power plants produce electricity in the same way as other conventional power plants, but using solar radiation as energy input. This energy can be transformed to high-temperature steam, to drive a turbine or a motor engine.Mainly, four elements are required in these plants: concentrator, receiver, tran. 2.1. DefinitionEnergy storage (ES) is the storing of some form of energy that can be drawn upon at a later time to perform some useful operation.A device that stores energy is sometimes called an accumulator. All forms of energy are either potential energy (e.g. chemical or gravitational), kinetic energy, electrical energy or thermal energy, and all these forms of energy could be stored with an appropriate method, system or technology. That means that every form of energy has itself an accumulator.As Fig. 1 shows, a large variety of energy storage systems are under development. Thermal energy storage (TES) will be discussed in this document, because it is the best method to be applied in solar power plants.3.1. Materials3.2. Material propertiesThermal energy storage materials must accomplish basic characteristics to be used (Table 9). Based on these characteristics, the appropriate material for a determinate application can be found.Table 9. Main characteristics of energy storage materials.3.3. Material properties analysisThe main thermal properties to study of PCM for any applications are the energy storage capacity and the thermal conductivity.The energy storage capacity of a PCM for a given application is given by the enthalpy variation between two temperatures and it involves the total energy (sensible and latent). Since the heat transfer from a PCM storage system to a heat transfer fluid must be studied during charging and discharging processes, it is also necessary to study the evolution of thermal properties with temperature, which means that enthalpy vs. temperature curves are needed. Several authors have worked in the development of appropriate evaluation methodologies,,,,,,,,.Analysis techniques used to study phase change are mainly conventional calorimetry, differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and di.
