With an increase in population, the demand for energy for heating
and cooling purposes has also risen. Thermal energy storage is a means to temporarily
store thermal energy for later utilization, helping maintain the demand and
supply equilibrium. In 2017, the global thermal energy storage market generated a revenue of $3,000.9 million, which is
expected to reach $7,472.9 million by 2023, progressing at a CAGR of 15.9%
during the forecast period (2018–2023). Apart from a growing demand for energy, the increasing installation rate of
concentrated solar power (CSP) systems is driving the market.
The thermal energy storage market has been segmented by type, technology, application, and region. Talking about the type segment, it is further divided into pump heat electrical storage (PHES), CSP and others, where the others category includes ice thermal energy storage and chilled water thermal energy storage. CSP dominated the market during the historical period 2013–2017 with more than 90.0% share of the total installed capacity of storage units. The benefits associated with CSP include lower investment cost, higher efficiency, and inherent thermal storage capacity, which helps in power generation during cloud cover and after sunset.
Government efforts toward the adoption of
thermal energy storage systems is one of the key drivers for the thermal energy
storage market. As such systems reduce the load on the power grid by supplying
electrical energy during periods of peak demand, their adoption is being
strongly encouraged in several countries. For instance, under the Property
Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) program of the Government of Texas, property
owners receive low-cost but long-term financing for the installation of solar
power units equipped with thermal energy storage systems.
There has been rapid urbanization across
the world (especially Asia-Pacific), and thus the demand for electricity has
risen, resulting in the deployment of various energy-generating systems.
According to China’s National Energy Administration, the installation of approximately
111 CSP projects with an aggregated capacity of around 9 GW is underway. This
firmly substantiates the P&S Intelligence finding that the thermal energy
storage market is projected to witness the fastest
revenue growth in APAC in the forecast
period at a CAGR of 44.7%.
Moreover, with the swift depletion of
fossil fuels, such as mineral oil and natural gas, the use of renewable energy has
increased in the APAC region in recent years. Governments of countries such as China
and India have been playing a significant role in the growth of the thermal
energy storage market by focusing on new technologies and solutions that help
store the power generated from renewable sources for meeting the future demand.
Underground thermal energy storage (UTES)
is one of the technologies that have been recently developed for power
generation and thermal energy storage (though not in APAC). Owing to the high concentration
of salt caverns and presence of aquifers in Europe and North America, this new
technology is grabbing the attention here. Hence, the increasing adoption of
UTES technology in these regions can open doors of opportunity for key thermal energy storage market players.
Therefore, it is being expected that government
support for thermal energy storage solutions and the need to balance the power
demand with adequate supply will take the domain forward.
0 Comments