Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage

Joshua D McTiguea, Pau Farres-Antunezb, Christos N Markidesc, and Alexander J Whiteb, aNational Renewable Energy Laboratory,
Golden, CO, United States; bDepartment of Engineering, Cambridge University, Cambridge, United Kingdom; cClean Energy Processes (CEP)
Laboratory and Centre for Process Systems Engineering (CPSE), Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, London,
United Kingdom
© 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Introduction 47
Solar thermal energy 47
Pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) 48
Overview of solar thermal systems with heat pumps 49
Using heat pumps to enhance solar thermal systems 50
Supporting PTES with solar heat 53
Heat pumps and solar thermal systems operating over the same temperature ranges 54
Summary 57
References 57

Abstract

This chapter considers the combination of solar thermal systems with an energy storage device known as a Carnot Battery
which charges thermal storage with a heat pump or electric heater. Integrating these systems can provide a variety of
advantages, such as dispatchable renewable power generation and electricity storage services. In this chapter a variety of
methods for hybridizing these systems are described, and ideal cycle analysis is used to assess their relative merits.

Nomenclature
Symbols
B Exergy (J)
COP Coefficient of performance, Eq. (1)
Q Heat (J)
S Entropy (J/K)
T Temperature (K)
W Work (J)
hHE Heat engine efficiency (%), Eq. (2)
hRT Electric-to-electric round-trip efficiency (%), Eq. (3)
hRT, 1 First-law round-trip efficiency (%), Eq. (4)
hRT, 2 Second-law round-trip efficiency (%), Eq. (5)
hnet Net efficiency (%), Eq. (6)

Subscripts
c,h Cold, hot
in, out In, out of system
o Ambient
s Solar

Abbreviations
CHEST Compressed heat energy storage
CSP Concentrating solar power
ETES Electro-thermal energy storage

46 Encyclopedia of Energy Storage https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-819723-3.00067-6

 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage 47

HTF Heat transfer fluid

LFR Linear Fresnel reflector
ORC Organic Rankine cycle
PCM Phase change material
PTC Parabolic trough collector
PTES Pumped thermal energy storage

Introduction

An increasing proportion of electricity is generated by renewable technologies which have recently achieved cost parity with
conventional electricity generation methods in several locations. The intermittency of the dominant renewable technologies—
wind and solar—can be mitigated with several approaches, and one prominent solution is energy storage, such as pumped
hydroelectric storage, electro-chemical batteries, flow batteries, compressed air energy storage, and liquid air energy storage
(Olympios et al., 2021). While electricity demand will continue to increase, especially with the electrification of sectors such as
the transportation industry, roughly 50% of energy is used for thermal processes (International Energy Agency, 2019). The majority
of heat is generated by fossil fuels, and further reduction of greenhouse gas emissions requires either renewable electrification or the
use of renewable heat technologies such as solar thermal or direct-use geothermal. Hybrid technologies that generate electrical and
thermal power as well as storing energy could provide multiple services to future energy systems in an efficient and economical way.
An energy storage device known as a Carnot Battery converts electricity into thermal energy which is stored in thermal reservoirs.
The thermal energy is converted back to electricity by a thermal power cycle at a later stage, although it may also be used directly in
thermal processes. Carnot Batteries encompass a range of concepts (International Energy Agency, 2021) that are described in detail
elsewhere in this book. Of particular interest in this chapter are Carnot Batteries that use a heat pump to charge the thermal storage,
and these systems may be known as pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) or electro-thermal energy storage (ETES).
PTES has been primarily considered for electricity storage applications, but the system involves flows of hot and cold thermal
energy, as well as electricity. This provides the opportunity to integrate PTES with thermal systems—either by storing available
thermal energy or delivering thermal power. A fundamental sub-system of PTES is a heat pump which converts electricity into hot
and cold thermal storage. In this chapter, the combination of heat pumps with solar thermal energy will be considered. Such
systems provide multiple functions such as co-generation of renewable electricity, and hot and cold energy, as well as electricity
storage services.
A brief overview of solar thermal technologies is given, followed by a description of PTES and methods by which it may be
integrated with solar energy. Ideal cycle analysis is used to explore the implications of integration of heat pumps with solar thermal
energy, and examples from the literature are described.

Solar thermal energy

Numerous methods of converting solar radiation into heat have been developed throughout history, for example, concentrating
mirrors were described by the ancient Greeks and further developed by Roger Bacon, Ibn al-Haytham and Leonardo Da Vinci for a
variety of applications including warfare, bathing and industry (Butti and Perlin, 1981). Several modern solar thermal technologies
are illustrated in Fig. 1. Flat plate collectors typically generate temperatures below 100
C and are used for domestic hot water,
heating, and cooling (if used to drive an absorption chiller). Temperatures up to 200
C are reached with an evacuated tube
collector, which uses a vacuum to reduce convective and conductive heat transfer, and can be used for solar process heat—it is
estimated that around 60% of steam for manufacturing processes in the United States is below 200
C (Kurup and Turchi, 2016).
Concentrating solar radiation to a line or point with mirrors generates temperatures high enough to convert the heat into
electricity with a reasonable efficiency. As of 2017, 4.8 GWe of concentrating solar power (CSP) has been deployed, with another
8.5 GWe under construction or development (Fernández et al., 2019). Parabolic trough collectors (PTC) are the most commercially
widespread CSP technology and are line-focus solutions that concentrate radiation onto a linear receiver. PTCs typically use thermal
oils as the heat transfer fluid (HTF) and therefore tend to be limited to temperatures below 390
C. Linear Fresnel reflectors (LFR)
approximate the shape of a parabolic trough which potentially leads to lower manufacturing costs and higher concentration ratios,
although optical efficiencies are lower than PTCs (Zhu et al., 2014). Further increases in concentration ratios and temperatures are
achieved by focusing sunlight on a point (Gauché et al., 2017) and these technologies include central receiver towers and parabolic
dishes. Central power towers have been commercially deployed, with around 5.4 GWe currently under construction or development.
Thermal energy storage is included in most new CSP plants which improves the flexibility and dispatchability as long as the
storage is charged. By decoupling supply and demand of energy, thermal storage can buffer power output in the event of cloud
cover, increase the capacity factor, and enable the dispatch of solar energy at higher value times. The vast majority of operational CSP
plants use nitrate molten salts, which are stable up to 565
C although some systems use pressurized steam or concrete as the storage
media (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2019). Increasing the storage temperature can lead to higher energy densities and
48 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage

Fig. 1 Overview of solar thermal technologies. Photos are from the NREL Image Gallery, and clockwise are #05642 (Russ Hewett), #29177 (Dennis Schroeder),
#46173 (Dennis Schroeder), #19881 (David Hicks), #19882 (AREVA Solar), #48518 (Dennis Schroeder). https://images.nrel.gov/.

heat engine efficiencies, which may be achieved by (1) increasing the operating temperature range of nitrate molten salts (Bonk
et al., 2020) (2) using novel storage fluids that are stable at higher temperatures, such as chloride molten salts (Mehos et al., 2017)
(3) using alternative heat transfer and storage media, such as solid particles (Ho and Iverson, 2014).
CSP and PTES both make use of high-temperature thermal storage and heat engines, and the combination of these technologies
can provide multiple energy management services while sharing components and reducing costs.

Pumped thermal energy storage (PTES)

Pumped Thermal Energy Storage (PTES) uses electricity to drive a heat pump which moves energy from a cold reservoir to a hot
reservoir, thereby creating a temperature difference. The stored thermal energy is then converted back into electricity at a later time
using a heat engine between the same two thermal reservoirs. Since PTES may be based on established thermodynamic cycles,
numerous system designs have been proposed with various selections of power cycle and thermal storage. Well-known configura-
tions include the use of ideal-gas Brayton cycles with solid thermocline storage (Desrues et al., 2010; Howes, 2012; McTigue et al.,
2015) or two-tank liquid storage (Laughlin, 2017; McTigue et al., 2021), transcritical carbon dioxide cycles with multiple liquid
storage tanks (Mercangöz et al., 2012; Morandin et al., 2013), and steam-Rankine cycles with sensible and latent heat storage
(Steinmann, 2014). Detailed descriptions of these systems are provided elsewhere in this book.
A simplistic representation of PTES is shown in Fig. 2 which illustrates ideal heat pump and heat engine cycles operating between
a hot and a cold thermal reservoir. Note, the actual ideal heat pump and heat engine cycles are coincident—i.e., they follow the same
paths on the phase diagram, albeit in opposite directions. Ideal analysis of this system leads to the trivial result that the round-trip
efficiency is 100%. The heat pump requires a work input Win to transfer heat Qc out of the cold reservoir and deliver heat Qh to the
hot reservoir. The coefficient of performance is
Qh Qh
COP ¼ ¼ (1)
Win Qh − Qc
The heat engine operates between the same temperature levels and extracts the same total quantity of heat Qh from the hot reservoir
to generate a work output Wout. To return the cycle to its original state, a heat Qc is transferred to the cold storage. (Note, that for
non-ideal cycles heat rejection Qrej ¼ Win − Wout to the environment must also occur. For ideal cycles, no entropy is generated
irreversibly so Qrej ¼ 0.) The heat engine efficiency of an ideal cycle is thus
Wout Qh − Qc

HE ¼ ¼ (2)
Qh Qh

Expressing the round-trip efficiency as the fraction of work input that can be recovered, leads to the aforementioned result:
 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage 49

(A) (B)

Fig. 2 (A) Ideal PTES cycles on a temperature-entropy diagram. The true ideal paths are coincident but are drawn separately here for clarity. (B) A simple
schematic of a PTES heat pump with liquid thermal storage during charge.

Wout

RT ¼ ¼
HE  COP ¼ 1 (3)
Win

Thus, the theoretical maximum round-trip efficiency is 100% and is independent of temperature. In practice, numerous irrevers-
ibilities reduce the round-trip efficiency: for heat transfer to occur, there must be a temperature difference between the thermal
reservoirs and the power cycles, so that on a T-s diagram, the heat engine cycle is contained within the heat pump cycle. Considering
these temperature differences gives rise to endo-reversible thermodynamic analysis and results for PTES are presented in Morandin
et al. (2012), Thess (2013), and Guo et al. (2016). Other significant losses are due to irreversibilities in the work processes—i.e., in
compressors and turbines—and cycle analysis considering these losses was developed in White et al. (2013). More detailed analysis
with numerical models of individual components has also been developed for a variety of PTES cycles. Rather than being
independent of temperature, these analyzes indicate that the round-trip efficiency and energy density are improved by maximizing
the temperature difference between the hot and cold reservoir.

Overview of solar thermal systems with heat pumps

Solar thermal systems and PTES use similar components and combining these systems can provide improved performance or a
multi-functional energy management device. Some noteworthy methods of integrating these systems include:

1. Use a heat pump in a solar thermal system to improve performance or functionality—e.g.,:

(a) Upgrade solar heat to higher temperatures to enable higher energy densities and efficiencies of the discharging system.
(b) Create a cold storage with a refrigerator and generate electricity by running a heat engine between the solar heat and the cold
storage.
(c) Combine both (a) and (b). This system could also deliver heat and cold to thermal loads.
2. Support a PTES system with solar heat:
(a) Increase the temperature of heat delivered by the heat pump with solar heat addition
(b) Simplify the thermal storage system (or reduce storage volumes) by using solar heat rather than storing energy
3. Create a system where the solar heat system is not dependent on the heat pump system, and vice versa. In the above examples,
both the heat pump and solar thermal system have to provide energy before the discharging heat engine can operate.
Alternatively, a hybrid system could share solar heat and heat pump components but operate these systems independently.
For example, thermal storage could be charged to the same temperature by solar heat and a heat pump, and then discharged
through a heat engine. The resulting system would provide both electricity storage and renewable power generation, but one
function would not depend on the other function having occurred.

Equation (3) defined the electric-to-electric round-trip efficiency, but this does not consider the additional value of adding solar heat
to an electricity storage system. A first-law round-trip efficiency may be defined as
50 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage

Wout

RT, 1 ¼ (4)
Win + Qin

This expression assumes that the work and heat inputs have an equivalent thermodynamic value. This is an appropriate metric to
use if the solar heat addition would not have been converted into electricity but used directly for thermal processes. If the solar heat
addition would normally have been used for electricity generation (such as in a CSP plant), then it is more appropriate to consider
the exergetic value of that heat, Bin ¼ Qin − ToSin (which should be calculated relative to ambient conditions, or the “dead state”).
Thus, the second-law round-trip efficiency is
Wout

RT, 2 ¼ (5)
Win + Bin

Note, these round-trip efficiencies are useful for comparing storage systems where the energy output is electricity. Additional terms
can be added to the numerator if the storage system also delivers thermal energy Qout.
The usefulness of hybrid solar-PTES systems may be compared to directly using solar energy for electricity generation with the net
efficiency, defined here as:
Wnet Wout − Win

net ¼ ¼ (6)
Qin Qin

This first-law efficiency metric considers the net work into the system along the full charge/discharge cycle, including the work input
to the heat pump Win and the work output of the heat engine Wout. This equation is used to assess hybrid systems for electricity
generation, rather than co-generation of electricity and thermal energy.

Using heat pumps to enhance solar thermal systems

Several methods of using a heat pump to improve the performance of solar thermal systems will be explored in this section. Three
types of integration are illustrated in Fig. 3:

1. In Fig. 3A, solar heat Qs is upgraded from temperature Ts to a higher temperature Th with a heat pump. The system later
discharges the heat engine between the upgraded temperature Th and ambient temperature To.
2. In Fig. 3B, a refrigerator creates a cold storage at Tc while solar heat is stored at Ts. The discharging heat engine operates between
Ts and Tc.
3. In Fig. 3C, the two previous systems are combined with solar heat upgraded to a higher temperature and a cold storage created by
a refrigerator.

The performance of these systems will be briefly described assuming ideal thermodynamic cycles. Although this is a simplistic
approach, it facilitates a high-level understanding of these systems and allows examples from the literature to be evaluated more
critically.
Firstly, upgrading solar heat to higher temperature and exergy with a heat pump will be considered (Fig. 3A). The heat pump
upgrades the heat from the solar collector Qs to heat going into the thermal storage, Qh by employing the work input Win ¼ Qh − Qs.

Fig. 3 Idealized temperature-entropy diagrams showing integration of heat pumps and solar heat. Qs,h,c,o is heat exchanged with solar, hot storage, cold storage,
and the environment, respectively, while Win,out is the work input or output. (A) A heat pump upgrades solar heat to a higher temperature. The heat engine operates
between the hot storage and the environment. (B) A refrigerator creates a cold storage. A heat engine operates between the solar heat and the cold storage. (C) A
combination of (a) and (b) whereby solar heat is upgraded, and a cold storage is created.
 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage 51

The discharging power cycle has an increased heat engine efficiency due to the increased temperature of heat addition, such that the
work output is Wout ¼ Qh − Qo. This leads to an electric-to-electric round-trip efficiency of
Qh − Qo

RT ¼ >1 (7)
Qh − Qs

Misleadingly, this efficiency is over 100% because the additional solar energy input is not accounted for. The first-law round-trip
efficiency accounts for the energy value of the solar heat
Qh − Qo Qo

RT, 1 ¼ ¼1− (8)
ðQh − Qs Þ + Qs Qh

Which is the same as the efficiency of a heat engine operating between the hot storage and ambient temperature. The first-law
round-trip efficiency implies that heat and work have equivalent values, whereas the second-law round-trip efficiency considers the
exergy (or available energy) of the solar heat, such that,
Qh − Qo

RT, 2 ¼ (9)
ðQh − Qs Þ + Bs

Where Bs ¼ Qs − ToSs is the solar exergy. Writing the entropy as S ¼ Q/T leads to Bs ¼ Qs(1 − To/Ts). For a reversible cycle the increase
in entropy of the system is zero; applying the Clausius equality to the heat pump and heat engine gives − Qh/Th + Qs/Ts ¼ 0 and
Qh/Th − Qo/To ¼ 0, respectively. Substituting these expressions into Eq. (9) simplifies the second-law round-trip efficiency to
0 1
T o
Qh @1 − A
Th
Qh − Qo

RT, 2 ¼ ¼ 0 1¼1 (10)
To
Qh − Qs @ To Ts A
Ts Qh 1 − 
Ts Th

Thus, it is apparent that accounting for the available energy of the solar heat, the second-law round-trip efficiency is equivalent to the
ideal round-trip efficiency of stand-alone PTES.
Another perspective is obtained by considering the net efficiency—i.e., the total work produced per unit of solar heat addition.
The net efficiency includes the work inputs and outputs of the full charge-discharge cycle and indicates how effectively the solar
energy is used compared to a conventional solar power generation system. The net efficiency in Eq. (6) may be rewritten in terms of
the electric-to-electric round-trip efficiency to give

Wout ð1 − 1=
RT Þ

net ¼ ¼
HE ð1 − 1=
RT Þ (11)
Qs

Where
HE is the efficiency of a solar heat engine. Positive net efficiencies can only be achieved if the electric-to-electric round-trip
efficiency exceeds 100%, as is the case when solar heat is upgraded with a heat pump, as shown by Eq. (7). In this case, the net
efficiency is

ðQh − Qo Þ − ðQh − Qs Þ Qo

net ¼ ¼1− (12)
Qs Qh

Which is the same as the efficiency of a heat engine driven by solar heat. This indicates that upgrading solar heat with a heat pump
provides no thermodynamic benefit when compared with extracting work directly from the solar energy. Rather, the additional heat
transfer processes in the heat pump cycle will, in practice, mean that solar heat will be less effectively used than in a CSP system.
Thus, additional benefits must be derived from this configuration for it to be worthwhile—such as reduced storage costs (by
increased energy density) or being able to take advantage of electricity price variations.
Higher temperatures can also facilitate the use of more cost-effective storage media. For example, parabolic trough collectors
typically heat thermal oils to 300–400
C but these oils are relatively expensive as well as flammable. Heat from a parabolic trough
collector could be upgraded to around 560
C thereby enabling storage in nitrate molten salts, as proposed by Mahdi et al. (2020)
and illustrated in Fig. 4. This system is slightly more complex than the simple arrangement described above, in that solar heat is also
used to preheat the molten salts. Photovoltaic solar cells provide the work input for the heat pump which is advantageous as the
required electrical energy will be available at the same time as the solar heat. Furthermore, this system also provides a method of
storing solar electricity without the use of electro-chemical batteries and may be suitable for longer-duration storage applications
(e.g., >8 h). Such systems reportedly achieve an electric-to-electric round-trip efficiency of 65–79% depending on the exact
configuration and heat pump design (Mahdi et al., 2020). The first-law round-trip efficiency is approximately 21% and the
second-law round-trip efficiency will fall between these two bounds. However, the net efficiency is in the range of 8–18% and as
explained above is necessarily lower than the efficiency of converting the solar heat directly into electricity, which is 30–35% at a
52 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage

Fig. 4 Schematic of a heat pump upgrading solar heat to temperatures compatible with nitrate molten salts. Figure taken from Mahdi Z, Dersch J, Schmitz P,
Dieckmann S, Alexander R, Caminos C, Teixeira Boura C, Herrmann U, Schwager C, Schmitz M, Gielen H, Gedle Y and Büscher R (2020) Technical Assessment of
Brayton Cycle Heat Pumps for the Integration in Hybrid PV-CSP Power Plants, SolarPACES.

temperature of 390
C for steam-Rankine cycles. Thus, the benefits of hybridizing PV with CSP and a heat pump to provide storage
capabilities must outweigh this efficiency penalty.
The configuration shown in Fig. 3B uses electrical energy to create cold storage with a refrigeration cycle. The discharging cycle
then generates power by exploiting the temperature difference between solar energy and the cold storage. The ideal electric-
to-electric round-trip efficiency in this case is greater than 100%
Qs − Qc

RT ¼ >1 (13)
Qs − Qo
Similarly, the net efficiency is expressed as

ðQs − Qc Þ − ðQo − Qc Þ Qo

net ¼ ¼1− ¼
HE (14)
Qs Qs

Which is again equivalent to the efficiency of a solar heat engine.

One example of such a system from the literature uses liquefied air for the cold storage (Li et al., 2012). This energy-dense liquid
storage may be obtained from a nearby liquefaction plant or generated on-site. The liquid air is compressed and heated to high
temperatures using recuperation and solar heat addition, before being expanded through turbines to generate electricity. This system
reportedly attains a second-law round-trip efficiency of 27.6% with a solar heat temperature of 320
C (note, that this result uses the
exergy of the solar radiation, rather than the exergy of the solar heat transfer fluid for the efficiency calculation). The authors report
that this efficiency is larger than the efficiency of generating electricity with either solar heat or with a cryogenic engine, and thus
indicates that it is advantageous to hybridize these systems. However, it is unclear how the net efficiency compares to the solar heat
engine efficiency.
A final example, shown in Fig. 3C, combines the two previous systems and uses a refrigerator to create cold storage and a heat
pump to upgrade solar heat. As may be expected, analysis of ideal cycles leads to the now-familiar result that the electric-to-electric
round-trip efficiency is greater than 100% while
RT, 2 ¼ 1 and
net ¼
HE.
As well as providing electricity generation and storage, this system can also provide domestic heating and cooling if the power
cycles are designed at appropriate temperatures, as described in Fiaschi et al. (2019, 2020). In these studies, a supercritical carbon
dioxide heat pump upgrades heat from non-concentrating solar collectors to 145
C. At the same time, a vapor-compression
refrigerator using R134a working fluid creates a cold storage at roughly −20
C. Both the heat pump and refrigerator are powered by
photovoltaic arrays. To generate electricity, a transcritical carbon dioxide cycle operates between the two storage temperatures, and
apparently can achieve electric-to-electric round-trip efficiencies of 50%. The first and second-law round-trip efficiencies were 14%
and 35.6%, respectively (this is because the energy terms on the denominator of Eq. 4 are larger than the exergy terms in Eq. 5).
These design values are dependent on the solar resource and will vary by location as well as over the course of the year. While this
system can flexibly provide several types of energy, it requires three separate power cycles and multiple storage tanks which leads to
high system costs. The intended end use is domestic energy management, and this system would be appropriate as part of a district
energy system where the power cycles and storage tanks are centralized and electricity, heating and cooling are distributed to local
 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage 53

users. Compared to deploying this system in individual households, a district-scale system would enable the use of more
cost-effective equipment as well as centralizing staff to reduce operations and maintenance costs. Furthermore, the dispatch of
the various energy flows should be carefully managed to minimize the use of external energy (e.g., using natural gas boilers in the
winter when the solar resource is low).

Supporting PTES with solar heat

Adding solar heat to a pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) system may either improve the storage performance and/or simplify
its design and operation.
PTES round-trip efficiency can be improved by increasing the temperature difference between the hot and cold storage.
Maximizing the hot storage temperature requires the heat pump compressor to have either a large pressure ratio or a high inlet
temperature. For instance, compressing air from ambient temperature to 600
C requires a pressure ratio of 38, whereas compres-
sing from 250
C to 600
C requires a lower pressure ratio of 5.8. In both cases, the compressor design will differ from those used in
conventional combined cycle power plants and will either require modifications or new turbomachinery design.
To reduce the need (and cost) of developing novel turbomachinery additional heat can be added to the system after the heat
pump compressor. For instance, Benato proposed using an electrical heater to maximize temperatures while minimizing pressure
ratios in order to reduce purchasing costs (Benato, 2017). This system achieved electric-to-electric round-trip efficiencies of >9%
for maximum temperatures above 750
C. Solar heat could be used instead of the electrical heaters, but the low round-trip efficiency
is unavoidable: adding heat to the hot storage “unbalances” the system because the cold storage volume has not be increased
correspondingly. Therefore, during discharge, the cold storage is depleted before the hot storage and the system has a surplus of
energy that cannot be extracted.
Consideration of the temperature-entropy diagram in Fig. 5 illustrates this problem. An ideal-gas PTES cycle with isentropic
compressions and expansions is shown, and the heat pump temperature is increased with solar heat. When discharging the system
(using the same pressure ratio), it can be seen that the turbine outlet temperature is relatively hot. This heat cannot be recuperated
within the cycle and must therefore be rejected, leading to significant losses. Fig. 5B shows the second-law round-trip efficiency for
the ideal cycle—i.e., assuming no temperature differences between the storage and working fluid, and isentropic turbomachinery.
It is notable that this ideal
RT, 2 is always less than 100% indicating that significant losses are unavoidable—recall that the systems
in “Using heat pumps to enhance solar thermal systems” section have ideal values of
RT, 2 ¼ 100%. This is due to the large quantity
of exergy that must be rejected to close the cycle. It is conceivable that this excess heat could be used directly in thermal process or
converted to electricity with a bottoming organic Rankine cycle (at the expense of system complexity). However, the round-trip
efficiency is still limited even with the inclusion of an ORC, with one study estimating an electric-to-electric round-trip efficiency of
47% despite maximum temperatures of over 1000
C (Chen et al., 2018). While this system may facilitate a more cost-effective
deployment of PTES systems, the ideal analysis indicates that this system is an ineffective use of solar heat.
A second example where solar heat is used to improve and simplify a PTES system was proposed by Henchoz et al. (2012).
The charging process uses an ammonia heat pump, and the superheat is stored in hot water (between points 2 and 3 on Fig. 6).
The heat of condensation is rejected to the environment rather than being stored, and salt water was found to be a cost-effective
choice for the cold storage. During discharge, the ammonia is preheated and evaporated by hot water from solar collectors, before
being superheated by the hot storage. The heat engine evaporation occurs at a higher temperature than the heat pump
condensation—thus, the average temperature of heat addition is increased in the discharging cycle which improves the efficiency.
Multi-objective optimization of the system estimated electric-to-electric round-trip efficiencies of 44–84%, with the highest

(A) (B)

Fig. 5 (A) Ideal temperature-entropy diagrams of an ideal PTES cycle with additional solar heat input. The charging process is anti-clockwise while the discharging
process is clockwise. Cycles are drawn separate from one another for clarity. (B) The effect of the solar heat temperature on the efficiency and exergy rejection of an
ideal PTES cycle with solar heat input.
54 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage

Fig. 6 Temperature-entropy diagram of an ammonia PTES cycle with solar heat addition. Figure taken from Henchoz S, Buchter F, Favrat D, Morandin M and
Mercangöz M (2012) Thermoeconomic analysis of a solar enhanced energy storage concept based on thermodynamic cycles. Energy 45: 358–365. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.energy.2012.02.010.

efficiencies being achieved by maximizing the ratio between the heat engine evaporation pressure and the heat pump condenser
pressure. Economical designs had round-trip efficiencies of 57%. (Note, that in the ideal case, electric-to-electric roundtrip
efficiencies are greater than 100%, Eq. 7).
Subcritical PTES cycles would typically use a phase change material (PCM) to store the latent heat during charge (between points
3 and 4). PCMs have low thermal conductivity which limits heat transfer rates, and these materials also tend to be more expensive
than sensible storage materials such as water or rocks. While this system avoids the heat transfer limitations of PCMs, the cost of
the required solar collectors should be compared with the latent heat storage. Furthermore, generating electricity is dependent on
the availability of solar heat, which limits operation in the winter months, as noted by the authors.
Another PTES system that can benefit from solar heat addition was proposed by Steinmann (2014). The CHEST system
(compressed heat energy storage) uses a subcritical steam cycle as a heat pump and as a heat engine, operating between a set of
hot stores and the environment. Three separate hot stores are used, two in the form of sensible heat (for the preheat and superheat
stages) and one in the form of latent heat (to drive the evaporation stage during discharge). The steam Rankine cycle features a very
low back-work ratio, resulting in high round-trip efficiencies, of the order of 70%. However, a challenge faced by the CHEST system
is the operation of the steam heat pump, which requires very low vapor pressures to extract heat from the environment, and
becomes infeasible if ambient temperature gets close to or below 0
C. To avoid this problem, an additional ammonia heat pump
may be used during charge to supply heat to the steam evaporator. Alternatively, low-temperature solar heat (as provided by
non-concentrating plates and tubes) can be used to supply the evaporator and avoid the need for the additional ammonia heat
pump. This simplifies the system and enhances the electric-to-electric efficiency, which is computed to reach values beyond 100% if
the solar heat is supplied at temperatures above 88
C.

Heat pumps and solar thermal systems operating over the same temperature ranges
A disadvantage of the systems described in “Using heat pumps to enhance solar thermal systems and Supporting PTES with solar
heat” sections is that discharging the system typically requires both the heat pump and solar heat addition to have occurred. This not
only constrains when the system can discharge, but in some cases places limitations on the charging process since both solar heat
and low-cost electricity must be available at the same time. Greater flexibility can be achieved if the heat pump and solar collectors
deliver heat at the same temperatures. These hybrid systems reduce costs by sharing the hot storage (and perhaps other compo-
nents), but the PTES and solar heat systems can operate independently of one another, as long as there is sufficient storage capacity.
Domestic hot water and heating may be provided by solar collectors or a ground-source heat pump, and in Schimpf and Span
(2015), these systems are combined to charge a hot water storage tank, which enables heat to be flexibly dispatched to a building.
Furthermore, the authors suggested that an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) could be added to the system to generate electricity from
the heat in the storage tank. The ORC used the ground as the heat sink and the heat pump condenser as its evaporator, such that
several components are shared between the heat pump, the solar collectors, the storage system, and the ORC. This example
illustrates how these systems can be combined in such a way as to maximize system flexibility: the heat pump can deliver heating
regardless of the solar availability, and electricity may also be generated if the storage volume is carefully managed.
Similarly, integrating a heat pump into a CSP plant can increase the flexibility of electricity dispatch, and this is shown
conceptually in Fig. 7. Hot thermal storage is shared between the CSP plant and the heat pump and may be charged with solar
heat or electricity. If the heat pump and the solar field deliver heat at the same temperature, then this system facilitates renewable
generation and provides electricity storage services such as arbitrage, grid inertia, capacity, and reduced renewable curtailment.
Sharing components between the two systems, such as the thermal storage and perhaps the heat engine, reduces capital costs
compared to two separate systems.
An existing CSP plant can be retrofitted with a heat pump, as proposed in Farres-Antunez et al. (2019) and Farres-Antunez et al.
(2021), which has the advantage that the solar field, thermal storage, power block, grid connection, and transmission lines are
 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage 55

Fig. 7 Conceptual representation of a CSP plant coupled with a heat pump which charges the molten salt thermal storage.

already in place. Similarly, existing coal-fired power plants that are being retired could be given a “second life” as an electricity
storage system by adding a heat pump (or electric heater) and thermal storage (Geyer, 2018; Vinnemeier et al., 2016). Existing CSP
and coal-fired plants generate electricity with steam-Rankine power cycles. A high-temperature heat pump is required to charge the
storage to temperatures compatible with the power cycle. While an electrical heater would be a simpler and cheaper option, the heat
pump provides significant efficiency benefits.
A suitable heat pump cycle uses a reverse-Brayton cycle, and an example schematic is shown in Fig. 8. If molten salts are used for
the hot storage (as is the case in CSP plants) then the heat pump must include a recuperator so that the cycle can operate over a wide
temperature range without the salt freezing, as described in Laughlin (2017). Supercritical carbon dioxide was proposed as the
working fluid in Aga et al. (2016), and this system has a high power density (and therefore compact machinery) due to the high
fluid density. Carbon dioxide compressors for the oil and gas industry are limited to outlet temperatures below 450
C which means
the molten salt is charged to a temperature below its maximum limit. This reduces the efficiency of the discharging steam cycle
unless the salt temperature is increased further with an electric heater, which consequently reduces the coefficient of performance.
The electric-to-electric round-trip efficiency is 52–54% for a system with just a heat pump, and 48–50% if an electric heater is used
(Aga et al., 2016).
Alternatively, the heat pump can use an ideal gas such as nitrogen or argon. These systems will have lower power densities than
supercritical CO2, even if they are highly pressurized, but these lower pressures provide fewer challenges for system pipework,
valves, and seals. Ideal-gas heat pumps can create very cold storage which is not necessary in this application. Several inter-heated
stages of expansion can be introduced as shown in Fig. 9: Temperature-entropy diagrams of (a) a charging heat pump with two
inter-heated expansion stages and (b) a discharging steam-Rankine cycle. This improves the coefficient of performance and increases
the temperature of the cold storage (Table 1), which facilitates the use of cheap storage media, such as water. Table 1 indicates that
more expansion stages also increases the round-trip efficiency to values over 57%, although at the expense of cost and complexity.
Higher cold storage temperatures would typically be detrimental to the performance of a PTES plant. However, this system is
unique in that the heat pump uses a Brayton cycle, and the heat engine employs a steam-Rankine cycle. The power cycle at a CSP
plant (or coal-plant) extracts heat from the molten salts to generate electricity and rejects heat to the environment. Heat engine
performance is improved slightly by rejecting heat into the cold storage instead. This is particularly beneficial at CSP plants where
the solar resource leads to high ambient temperatures that reduce the power output. Since freezing in the condenser (and other heat
exchangers) should be avoided, there is little benefit to creating sub-ambient cold storage temperatures for this application.
Retrofitting a heat pump with an existing CSP plant in this manner may produce numerous practical challenges, depending on
the exact layout of the existing system, in which case an electrical heater may provide many of the benefits at reduced complexity.
The above system would be suitable for retrofitting an existing CSP or coal-plant. However, a new-build plant could use the same
type of power cycle in charge and discharge to improve the heat transfer match between the heat pump, the storage, and the heat
engine. This would also facilitate cost reductions as several components, such as the heat exchangers, can be shared between the
charging and discharging processes. A new-build hybrid CSP-PTES plant along these lines would have two modes of operation. The
first mode is electricity storage, in which a heat pump creates hot and cold thermal storage, which is later discharged through a heat
engine. The second mode is power generation, in which solar heat is stored before being discharged through a heat engine.
For the first mode, a reverse-Brayton heat pump as illustrated in Fig. 8A is an efficient method of creating hot storage at
temperatures compatible with CSP, as well as cold storage. The working fluid flow direction can be reversed, so that electricity is
generated by operating between the hot and cold storage. Although the heat exchangers and storage may be shared between the two
cycles, it is likely that they will require different sets of turbomachinery. This electricity storage system will achieve round-trip
 (A)

(B)

Fig. 8 (A) Process flow diagram for a Brayton cycle heat pump that charges molten salt thermal storage. (B) The discharging cycle uses a steam Rankine cycle.

(A) (B)

Fig. 9 Temperature-entropy diagrams of (A) a charging heat pump with two inter-heated expansion stages and (B) a discharging steam-Rankine cycle.
 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage 57

Table 1 Performance of a CSP steam Rankine cycle retrofitted with a heat pump.

Number of heat pump expansion stages

1 2 3

COP – 1.35 1.40 1.41

Round-trip efficiency
RT % 55.6 57.7 57.9


Minimum heat pump temperature C −46.9 −8.9 6.3

efficiencies comparable with ideal-gas PTES cycles using two-tank molten salt storage (50–60%) (Laughlin, 2017; McTigue et al.,
2021). In the second mode, solar heat either charges the hot storage or directly generates electricity in a heat engine. However,
the heat engine must operate between the solar temperature and the environment because the cold storage will be depleted, as
described in Farres-Antunez et al., (2019). Heat engine efficiencies comparable with conventional steam-Rankine cycles may be
achieved by means of intercooled compressions (Farres-Antunez et al., 2019). However, if the same compressors and expanders are
used in the heat engine for both modes, then these machines must be able to operate over a range of off-design conditions,
otherwise additional components should be introduced. Furthermore, the use of an ideal gas power cycle in a CSP system may
require technological developments, such as air receivers or molten-salt-to-air heat exchangers.

Summary

Pumped thermal energy storage (PTES) uses thermal storage and thermodynamic cycles to store electricity. These systems can be
combined with solar heat in order to reduce costs, improve performance, or develop a multi-functional energy management device.
This chapter reviews several methods of integrating heat pumps with solar thermal energy, such as upgrading solar heat with a heat
pump, or increasing PTES maximum temperatures with solar heat. Ideal cycle analysis is used to review the performance that these
systems might realistically achieve. It is shown that hybridizing solar heat with a heat pump provides no thermodynamic benefits—
that is, solar heat can be converted into electricity with the same efficiency as the hybrid system. However, integrating these devices
can provide economic benefits by sharing components to reduce costs, and providing multiple services including renewable
heating, cooling, and electricity, as well as electricity storage services. Assessing the economic value of such systems will depend
on the solar resource, energy generation mix, energy demand profiles, economic incentives, and policies.

References
Aga V, Conte E, Carroni R, Burcker B, and Ramond M (2016) Supercritical CO2-based heat pump cycle for electrical energy storage for utility scale dispatchable renewable energy
power plants. In: 5th International Symposium—Supercritical CO2 Power Cycles 94.
Benato A (2017) Performance and cost evaluation of an innovative pumped thermal electricity storage power system. Energy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.07.066.
Bonk A, Braun M, Sötz VA, and Bauer T (2020) Solar salt—Pushing an old material for energy storage to a new limit. Applied Energy 262: 114535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
apenergy.2020.114535.
Butti K and Perlin J (1981) A Golden Thread: 2500 Years of Solar Architecture and Technology. Marion Boyars Publishers.
Chen LX, Hu P, Xie MN, and Wang FX (2018) Thermodynamic analysis of a high temperature pumped thermal electricity storage (HT-PTES) integrated with a parallel organic Rankine
cycle (ORC). Energy Conversion and Management 177: 150–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2018.09.049.
Desrues T, Ruer J, Marty P, and Fourmigué JF (2010) A thermal energy storage process for large scale electric applications. Applied Thermal Engineering 30: 425–432. https://doi.
org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2009.10.002.
Farres-Antunez P, McTigue JD, and White AJ (2019) A pumped thermal energy storage cycle with capacity for concentrated solar power integration. In: Offshore Energy Storage Conf.,
Brest, France.
Farres-Antunez P, White AJ, Markides CN, and McTigue JD (2021) Energy Storage in Steam Power Plants Retrofitted With Brayton Heat Pumps. Manuscript in Preparation.
Fernández AG, Gomez-Vidal J, Oró E, Kruizenga A, Solé A, and Cabeza LF (2019) Mainstreaming commercial CSP systems: A technology review. Renewable Energy 140: 152–176.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2019.03.049.
Fiaschi D, Manfrida G, Petela K, and Talluri L (2019) Thermo-electric energy storage with solar heat integration: Exergy and exergo-economic analysis. Energies 12: 648. https://doi.
org/10.3390/en12040648.
Fiaschi D, Manfrida G, Petela K, Rossi F, Sinicropi A, and Talluri L (2020) Exergo-economic and environmental analysis of a solar integrated thermo-electric storage. Energies
13: 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3390/en13133484.
Gauché P, Rudman J, Mabaso M, Landman WA, von Backström TW, and Brent AC (2017) System value and progress of CSP. Solar Energy 152: 106–139. https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.solener.2017.03.072.
Geyer M (2018) Carnot batteries for the decarbonization of coal fired power plants using high temperature thermal storage technologies from solar power plants. In: International
Workshop on Carnot Batteries.
Guo J, Cai L, Chen J, and Zhou Y (2016) Performance optimization and comparison of pumped thermal and pumped cryogenic electricity storage systems. Energy 106: 260–269.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2016.03.053.
Henchoz S, Buchter F, Favrat D, Morandin M, and Mercangöz M (2012) Thermoeconomic analysis of a solar enhanced energy storage concept based on thermodynamic cycles. Energy
45: 358–365. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2012.02.010.
Ho CK and Iverson BD (2014) Review of high-temperature central receiver designs for concentrating solar power. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 29: 835–846. https://
doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.08.099.
Howes J (2012) Concept and development of a pumped heat electricity storage device. Proceedings of the IEEE 100: 493–503. https://doi.org/10.1109/JPROC.2011.2174529.
58 Integration of Heat Pumps With Solar Thermal Systems for Energy Storage

International Energy Agency (2019) Renewables 2019. https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2019.

International Energy Agency (2021) IEA Annex 36 on Carnot Batteries. Accessed Feb. 2021 https://iea-eces.org/annex-36/.
Kurup P and Turchi C (2016) Potential for solar industrial process heat in the United States: A look at California. AIP Conference Proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4949198.
Laughlin RB (2017) Pumped thermal grid storage with heat exchange. Journal of Renewable and Sustainable Energy 9. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4994054.
Li Y, Wang X, Jin Y, and Ding Y (2012) An integrated solar-cryogen hybrid power system. Renewable Energy 37: 76–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2011.05.038.
Mahdi Z, Dersch J, Schmitz P, Dieckmann S, Alexander R, Caminos C, Teixeira Boura C, Herrmann U, Schwager C, Schmitz M, Gielen H, Gedle Y, and Büscher R (2020) Technical
Assessment of Brayton Cycle Heat Pumps for the Integration in Hybrid PV-CSP Power Plants. In: SolarPACES.
McTigue JD, White AJ, and Markides CN (2015) Parametric studies and optimisation of pumped thermal electricity storage. Applied Energy 137: 800–811. https://doi.org/10.1016/
j.apenergy.2014.08.039.
McTigue J, Farres-Antunez P, Sundarnath K, Markides C, and White A (2021) Techno-Economic Analysis of Recuperated Joule-Brayton Pumped Thermal Energy Storage (PTES)
Systems. Manuscript submitted.
Mehos M, Turchi C, Vidal J, Wagner M, Ma Z, Ho C, Kolb W, Andraka C, and Kruizenga A (2017) Concentrating Solar Power Gen3 Demonstration Roadmap, NREL Tech. Report, NREL/
TP-5500-67464.
Mercangöz M, Hemrle J, Kaufmann L, Z’Graggen A, and Ohler C (2012) Electrothermal energy storage with transcritical CO2 cycles. Energy 45: 407–415. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
energy.2012.03.013.
Morandin M, Maréchal F, Mercangöz M, and Buchter F (2012) Conceptual design of a thermo-electrical energy storage system based on heat integration of thermodynamic cycles—
Part A: Methodology and base case. Energy 45: 375–385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2012.03.031.
Morandin M, Mercangöz M, Hemrle J, Maréchal F, and Favrat D (2013) Thermoeconomic design optimization of a thermo-electric energy storage system based on transcritical CO2
cycles. Energy 58: 571–587. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2013.05.038.
National Renewable Energy Laboratory (2019) Concentrating Solar Power Projects. https://solarpaces.nrel.gov/.
Olympios A, McTigue J, Farres-Antunez P, Romagnoli A, Steinmann W, Thess A, Wang L, Chen H, Li Y, Ding Y, and Markides C (2021) Progress and prospects of thermo-mechanical
energy storage—A critical review. Progress in Energy 3(2). https://doi.org/10.1088/2516-1083/abdbba.
Schimpf S and Span R (2015) Techno-economic evaluation of a solar assisted combined heat pump—Organic Rankine cycle system. Energy Conversion and Management
94: 430–437. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2015.02.011.
Steinmann WD (2014) The CHEST (compressed heat energy STorage) concept for facility scale thermo mechanical energy storage. Energy 69: 543–552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
energy.2014.03.049.
Thess A (2013) Thermodynamic efficiency of pumped heat electricity storage. Physical Review Letters 111: 158901. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.110602.
Vinnemeier P, Wirsum M, Malpiece D, and Bove R (2016) Integration of heat pumps into thermal plants for creation of large-scale electricity storage capacities. Applied Energy
184: 506–522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.10.045.
White A, Parks G, and Markides CN (2013) Thermodynamic analysis of pumped thermal electricity storage. Applied Thermal Engineering 53: 291–298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.
applthermaleng.2012.03.030.
Zhu G, Wendelin T, Wagner MJ, and Kutscher C (2014) History, current state, and future of linear Fresnel concentrating solar collectors. Solar Energy 103: 639–652. https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.solener.2013.05.021.