New Directions in Low Temperature Solar Thermal Storage

Comprehensive overviews of energy storage technologies for solar applications are already available [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Collectively they characterize the better known concepts and materials much more thoroughly than would be possible here. I shall not try to duplicate those efforts. However, the existing overviews do not include some potentially promising technical approaches, that at the time of compilation were relatively immature or had not yet appeared prominently in the literature. Other developments, of course, have emerged in the intervening years. What is needed most right now is an update with new perspectives, concentrating on a manageable number of new and exciting developments. To this end I seize the present opportunity.