ABSTRACT
There has been a tremendous need for energy storage technologies to offset the problem of the intermittency of renewable energy sources to store generated energy and make it accessible at the time of demand. Efficacy is more in latent heat storage (LHS) materials among energy storage approaches, involving thermal energy storage in phase transition materials that exploit the huge latent heat while in the phase transition process. This chapter aims to discuss LHS-based phase change materials (PCMs) and their properties, characterization techniques, mechanism of storage, and potential for use in a variety of low-, medium-, and high-temperature storage applications. It also describes several enhancement approaches for improving PCM material performance, as well as future problems and the scope of progress in LHS materials based on storage methodologies.
