The Thermal Energy group is dedicated to design an efficient yet compact solar thermal energy storage (STES) system, and eventually create a prototype. Our research objective is to minimize the trade-off between renewable energy variations in order to expand the application of thermal energy storage beyond industrial utilization. Ultimately, our storage design will allow for all components to be scaled in order to meet the necessary energy demands of its application.

Prior to the development of STES system, we will first develop a mobile application. The mobile application will allow for long distance monitoring of our device and display thermal properties such as temperature, thermal conductivity and heat transfer coefficient to ensure proper performance.

Our team for this brand-new project includes eight seniors and one junior, all very excited about the project’s significant outcomes await, and proud to be the first members of a newborn project. We believe that not only the project provides a great opportunity for us to explore things were not taught in class (e.g. smart phone app development), but also our prototype is an improvement of current thermal storage products in terms of cost, size and accessibility.

As of now, we have started procurement of thermocouples and other related electronic hardware for the app development. We are also working collaboratively on UROP proposal.

The attached diagram (Drawn by Mehrshad Haghi) shows our general idea of the STES system.