THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE UNIT

REELCOOP

Research Cooperation in Renewable Energy Technologies for Electricity

European Commission, 7th FP

7.476 M€

2013-2017

Project Summary

The overall aim of REELCOOP will be to significantly enhance research cooperation and knowledge creation on renewable electricity generation, involving Mediterranean partner countries (MPC), while at the same time developing and testing new renewable electricity generation systems. REELCOOP will develop decentralized (distributed) building integrated PV systems and Solar Thermal / biomass micro-cogeneration systems, as well as centralized generation of electricity in hybrid concentrating solar & biomass power plants.
www.reelcoop.com/

Thermal Storage Group’s Role

CIEMAT is developing its new patent for a latent storage module for low-k PCM and spiral-based geometry. This spiral-based latent storage is expected to be an alternative to fin-configuration for medium-low storage capacities

Technical Approach and Resources Used

The research team is engaged in

• Analysis, modelling and simulation of the new latent storage geometry.
• Design and construction of a prototype module based on spiral concept.
• Testing and evaluation of this prototype.
• Design optimization.
• Analysis and optimization of control strategies of this TES prototype with a parabolic trough field and an organic Rankine cycle.

Three novel prototype systems will be developed and tested, which will be representative of both micro (distributed) and large (centralized) scale approaches to electricity generation. The environmental sustainability and economics of the prototype systems will be assessed, and the results obtained will be disseminated to industry and research, as proof-of-concept of renewable electricity generation solutions. Grid integration will also be assessed.

• Dr. Mª Esther Rojas
• Dr. Rocío Bayón
• Margarita Rodriguez
• Esther Rivas