Technical Difficulties of Container Energy Storage

The performance of a storage system depends mainly on density and specific heat of the substance used, that affect the necessary volume . Two disadvantages are inherent in most sensible storage systems. These are the large size usually required and the temperature swing created from the sensible addition and extraction of energy, .

Different energy storage technologies coexist because their characteristics make them attractive to different applications. In general, energy storage systems can be described as either electrical or thermal, , , , , .

The auxiliary components required by some energy storage systems determine the total system costs and are often independent of system size. For these reasons, some storage systems are only economically feasible above a minimum energy content and power output.

The process of storing and withdrawing energy can cause considerable losses. Many auxiliary components of the energy storage system have a constant power demand, and in addition, there are energy losses inherent in the storage principle. These losses can be very high in relation to the energy content.

Another problem of latent thermal energy storage is the low thermal conductivity of the phase change materials, which limits the power that can be extracted from the energy storage system . To improve the thermal conductivity of some paraffins, metallic fillers, metal matrix structures, finned tubes and aluminum shavings were used, .

Recent advancements in electrochemical energy storage technology, notably lithium-ion batteries, have seen progress in key technical areas, such as research and development, large-scale integration, safety measures, functional realisation, and engineering verification and large-scale application function verification has been achieved.