Thermal Energy Storage By Phase Change Materials Suitable For Solar Water Heaters: An Updated Review

Many renewable energy sources are not available at any time in nature, and some others are diminishing, so the development of energy storage technologies is very important to conserve the available energy and improve its utilization. The use of a phase change material (PCM) is a very promising technology for thermal energy storage. In this context, latent heat thermal energy storage system employing phase change material (PCM) is the attractive one due to high-energy storage density with the smaller temperature difference between storing and releasing functions. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive review of the PCMs application for solar energy use and storage such as for solar power generation focusing on water heating systems. Therefore, different types of PCMs and main criteria that govern their selection are reviewed. The results of this survey identify gaps in existing research on latent storage in solar water heaters. The aim is to propose a perspective on the design of the new type of solar water heater. We imagined three possible storage system integration PCMs.