2021 Thermal Energy Storage Systems for Buildings Workshop: Priorities and Pathways to Widespread Deployment of Thermal Energy Storage in Buildings

Nelson James, Sumanjeet Kaur, Fredericka Brown, Marcus Bianchi, Judith Vidal, Diana Hun

Research output: NRELTechnical Report

Abstract

The 2021 U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) "Thermal Energy Storage Systems for Buildings Workshop: Priorities and Pathways to Widespread Deployment of Thermal Energy Storage in Buildings" was hosted virtually on May 11 and 12, 2021. This report provides an overview of the workshop proceedings. Organized by DOE's Building Technologies Office (BTO), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the workshop convened more than 600 stakeholders from around the world to discuss the need for advancing the deployment of thermal energy storage (TES) in buildings. This workshop was designed to build on BTO's webinar series and 2019 workshop. The goals of this workshop were to promote discussion on TES related to: 1. Market adoption and deployment barriers, 2. Key applications and value drivers, 3. System cost, performance, and market requirements, and 4. End-use specific needs. The workshop took place over two days and consisted of keynote presentations, moderated panels, breakout sessions, and open discussion forums. The keynote presentations introduced opportunities for building TES, barriers to widespread deployment, and future visions. Moderated panel discussions presented diverse perspectives, breakout sessions provided opportunities for more intimate conversations, and open discussions captured feedback from the entire workshop group. Over the course of the two days, attendees exchanged experiences and ideas surrounding multiple aspects of TES in buildings. The first section of this report provides background on the motivations behind advancing TES for residential and commercial buildings and elaborates on the workshop objectives. The second section details the workshop structure and participant demographics. The third section provides key findings of the discussions that took place during the breakout sessions. Finally, this report details recommendations and actions to increase the TES deployment. Several recommendations from workshop attendees are presented in Table ES-1. TES holds significant potential to help increase building efficiency, grid-interactivity, and energy resilience, as well as reduce associated carbon emissions. The outputs generated from this workshop will aid stakeholders in advancing TES in buildings through a deeper understanding of the opportunities and barriers surrounding widespread deployment.
Original languageAmerican English
Number of pages49
DOIs
StatePublished - 2021

NREL Publication Number

  • NREL/TP-5500-80376

Other Report Number

  • DOE/GO-102021-5619

Keywords

  • adoption
  • buildings
  • deployment
  • thermal energy storage

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of '2021 Thermal Energy Storage Systems for Buildings Workshop: Priorities and Pathways to Widespread Deployment of Thermal Energy Storage in Buildings'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this