Thermal Energy Storage 2024-2034: Technologies, Players, Markets, and Forecasts

IDTechEx forecasts that the industrial thermal energy storage market will reach US$4.5B by 2034. Heating and cooling accounts for approximately 50% of global energy consumption, with ~30% of this consumption represented by heating demand from industry, with the majority of heat production using fossil fuels. Consequently, ~25% of the global energy pollution comes from heat produced for industrial processes. Therefore, there is growing demand across various industrial sectors for technologies to both generate and store decarbonized heat, such as thermal energy storage (TES).

 

TES systems have been widely adopted for applications such as pairing with concentrated solar power (CSP) plants, district heating, cold chain, and space heating for buildings. However, TES in industry is an emerging and niche market, and is only responsible for ~1% of the global TES market currently. IDTechEx expects that TES systems deployed in industry will form a growing proportion of global TES capacity and will be one of the key solutions needed to reduce global industrial emissions. Government and state-led initiatives such as the EU Innovation Project and the US Department of Energy's Industrial Heat Shot^TM are looking to provide funding to companies developing technologies to decarbonize industrial processes, in which TES could be included. Moreover, recently higher natural gas prices in key regions also highlight the need for technologies to provide heat for industrial processes at a potentially lower and more stable cost.

 

The majority of TES technologies are primarily being developed to provide decarbonized heat to industrial processes. This could include sensible-heat technologies using materials such as molten salt, and solid-state media such as concrete and refractory brick, or latent-heat technologies using phase change materials. Different technologies also accept different forms of energy input, including renewable electricity to power electrical resistive heating elements, or excess heat capture (e.g., steam).

 

TES technologies could also be paired with turbine-generators to produce electricity, potentially while co-currently delivering heat. This could see some TES systems be used for long duration energy storage (LDES) applications. As the penetration of variable renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind, increases in national electricity grids, as will the need to manage greater fluctuating supply of energy over longer timeframes. This is where LDES technologies will be useful in dispatching energy over these longer timeframes. Electro-thermal energy storage (ETES) technologies such as those adopting materials such as sand, molten salt, CO₂, and water are being developed for larger grid-scale LDES applications. However, conversion of heat to electricity results in efficiency losses, which would be a disadvantage of TES technologies compared to some other LDES technologies. Thermochemical energy storage (TCES) technologies are another type of TES technology and are generally still in prototype stage of development. Greater awareness, funding and material optimization is required to bring these technologies to market.

 

This IDTechEx report analyzes and appraises various TES technologies' commercial readiness for industrial applications, and advantages and disadvantages, including factors such as cost, maximum storage temperature, expected system lifetime, and round-trip efficiency.

 

 

TES systems can be used in industry for various process heating applications, including calcination, drying, process fluid heating, and power generation, among more. Some of these processes are used across multiple industrial sectors, which TES players are targeting, such as chemicals, materials manufacturing, refining, food and beverage, pulp and paper, cement, glass, and metal sectors. These processes have requirements related to temperature and type of heat required. For instance, fluid heating processes are typically used in chemical manufacturing and refining processes, such as in distillation reboilers. These processes could see a thermal storage medium, such as molten salt, double up as a heat transfer fluid which, on discharge, passes through a heat exchanger as part of a recirculation loop. 'Medium temperatures' are generally required for such processes, ranging from 200-600°C. Whereas drying processes generally require lower temperatures below 200°C, and are ubiquitous across industrial sectors. These processes will typically require convective heat transfer from hot, dry air. Cooler air could pass through or around a TES medium to be heated and then supplied on discharge to an industrial drying process.

 

However, several metal and glass heat treating and melting processes require much higher temperatures, greater than 1000°C. Many of the TES systems being developed and commercialized are unable to store and supply heat at such temperatures without compromising the mechanical or thermal stability of the thermal storage medium. However, development of novel solid-state materials to withstand higher storage temperatures is being observed, which could promise the use of TES in these higher-temperature processes, which have been some of the most difficult to decarbonize. This IDTechEx report analyzes and examines TES technologies being developed by key players globally and assesses which technologies would be most suitable for different industrial heating applications.

 

 

As of January 2024, TES players have accumulated over US$600M in funding, to develop and commercialize their technologies, and to increase manufacturing capacity. State-level funding is expected to be an initial key driver across regions, though the proportion of funding attributed to TES versus other industrial decarbonization technologies is not always clear. While a few key GWh-scale non-CSP TES projects are planned for deployment in the US and China, IDTechEx expects most TES player attention is currently focused on the European market. At least 275 MWh of planned cumulative TES capacity is expected to be installed in Europe for industrial applications by 2025. Recently higher natural gas prices and emission caps enforced through the EU Emissions Trading System will be key drivers for European TES growth in industry. This IDTechEx report provides market overviews and data analysis for the industrial TES market, including value chain, strategic partnerships, funding, material suppliers, business models, key player activity, planned and existing projects, and manufacturing developments.

 

 

This IDTechEx report also provides 10-year market forecasts on the TES market for the period 2020-2034, in both capacity (GWh) and market value (US$B). Capacity forecasts are provided by region, technology, and application. Regions include Europe, United States, Australia, China, and Rest of the World.

All report purchases include up to 30 minutes telephone time with an expert analyst who will help you link key findings in the report to the business issues you're addressing. This needs to be used within three months of purchasing the report.

If you have any questions about this report, please do not hesitate to contact our report team at research@IDTechEx.com or call one of our sales managers:

AMERICAS (USA): +1 617 577 7890

ASIA (Japan): +81 3 3216 7209

ASIA: +82 10 3896 6219

EUROPE (UK) +44 1223 812300