Phase Change Materials

This is a study concerning solar storage technologies and materials presented by J. C. Hadorn from the Swiss Federal Office of Energy. Many schemes and graphics provide a visual explanation of how all presented technologies work and how they can be connected to different energy supply technologies or with energy grid.Some schemes of potentially useful materials for this function thanks to their energy densities are also available.

This document was prepared in 2006 by the initiator group of ESTTP and provides a summary of potential solar thermal possibilities in the next 20 years. The report outlines various trends and improvements in solar thermal technology and gives insight and predictions of use and advancement in the future.

This document was prepared by two researchers from the Osaka University, Department of Architectural Engineering. It describes the prototype solar chimney with PCM (Phase Change Material) storage, together with a numerical model for predicting air flow rate in a solar chimney and temperature of aluminum plate, air and PCM.

Countries like Germany, Switzerland and France are registering an increasing interest in low energy houses, mainly single family houses (40-45 kWh/m2 per year for space heating) combined with solar heat production.

If solar energy is to be the primary or only source of heat for houses in the future, there will arise a need for storing it more efficiently. Materials have to be found that are able to hold more energy than water, but with less volume and higher loss. Task 32 of the International Energy Agency's (IEA) Solar & Cooling programme was working on this issue. The scientists presented their results at the Eurosun 2008 in Lisbon, at the beginning of October.