Thermal power is the rate at which fuel is converted into heat in most energy systems, such as a gasoline engine. These heat engines generate heat to perform useful work. The heat input to a boiler in a power plant to generate electricity is commonly referred to as thermal power.
COVID-19 Impact analysis
Financing, policy uncertainty, and grid integration have already hampered the development of renewable energy technologies in several markets, and COVID-19 has added to the mix. The COVID-19 crisis, according to the IEA, has had a significant impact on the global renewable power capacity addition. Construction delays are a result of supply chain disruptions, primarily caused by China, lockdown measures in all major economies, social-distancing guidelines for workers, and the resulting financing challenges.
Top Impacting Factors
Decarbonisation of the energy sector and carbon emission reductions to limit global climate change are among the most hegemonic goals for governments, energy authorities, and utilities around the world. Among natural gas-fired power plants, combined-cycle plants are the most efficient ones. They are slightly less expensive to build than gas turbine cycle plants, but they can produce more energy by utilising the heat generated during the process. Solar and other renewable energy sources have not been able to provide electricity with storage or molten salt at affordable rates by 2020. Gas is expected to remain the preferred alternative until such technology becomes competitive. In the coming years, natural gas combined cycle plants are anticipated to dominate new electricity generation, particularly in countries like China and India.
Market Trends
- Thermal energy storage involves cooling or heating a storage medium, such as sand, rocks, water, or molten salt, to store solar thermal energy for later use in cooling and heating applications, as well as power generation. Thermal energy storage is critical for electricity storage in concentrating solar power plants, where solar heat can be stored and used to generate electricity when the sun is not shining. This allows CSP plants to operate without interruption. The single-tank thermocline system, two-tank indirect system, and two-tank direct system are three of the most common CSP thermal energy storage technologies. Better reliability, increased overall efficiency, lower investment, and operating costs and cost-effective operations are all advantages of thermal energy storage in CSP plants. It can also help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. As a result, market growth is likely to be fueled by the integration of thermal energy storage in CSP plants.
- End users and the power system as a whole can benefit from industrial bulk consumption, self-consumption, and the use of distributed storage. As a result, in the coming years, thermal energy storage technology is expected to grow in popularity. However, to see increased deployment, storage project costs must be reduced and made cost-effective at scale.
- Natural gas-based thermal power plants are expected to grow the most, while nuclear and coal-based thermal power plants are expected to stagnate.
- The fastest-growing segment will be natural gas power plants, because of its low carbon emissions, low construction costs, and highest efficiency (in terms of heat rate Btu/KWh) among thermal power plants.
- Coal thermal power plants are expected to continue to be the most widely used thermal power plants, with the largest share of global electricity power supply in 2025. More efficient technologies, such as Ultra Supercritical Coal Technology, which reduces pollution (per KW), are expected to replace older power plants and become a market opportunity.
- The Asia-Pacific region is expected to dominate the market, with China and India accounting for the majority of demand.
- The market's leading players are Abengoa Solar, Burns & McDonnell, SolarReserve, BrightSource Energy, Calmac, MAN Energy Solutions, and Baltimore Air Coil Technology.
- China is building the world's largest number of thermal power plants. To meet the demand for electricity, ultra-supercritical coal plants such as Fuyang Power Station and Huadian Laizhou Power Station are being built.
Key Benefits of the Report
- This study presents the analytical depiction of the thermal energy storage along with the current trends and future estimations to determine the imminent investment pockets.
- The report presents information related to key drivers, restraints, and opportunities along with detailed analysis of the thermal energy storage market share.
- The current market is quantitatively analyzed to highlight the thermal energy storage market growth scenario.
- Porter’s five forces analysis illustrates the potency of buyers & suppliers in the market.
- The report provides a detailed thermal energy storage market analysis based on competitive intensity and how the competition will take shape in coming year
Key Market Segments
- By Technology
- sensible
- latent
- thermochemical
- Others
- By Storage Material
- Water
- Molten Salts
- PCM
- Others
- By Application
- Power Generation
- District Heating and cooling
- Process heating and cooling
- Others
- By Region
- North America
- Europe
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Spain
- UK
- Rest of Europe
- Asia-Pacific
- China
- Japan
- India
- South Korea
- Australia
- Rest of Asia-Pacific
- LAMEA
- Brazil
- South Africa
- Saudi Arabia
- UAE
- Rest of LAMEA
Key Market Players
- GE
- Wartsila
- Doosan
- Bharat Heavy Electricals
- Hitachi
- Toshiba
- Alstom
- ABB
- Siemens
- Mitsubishi