Thermal energy storage co-benefits in building applications transferred from a renewable energy perspective

Abstract

Although one of the main aims of using renewable energy sources in building applications is to reduce the environmental impact caused by the high global energy demand of buildings, it can also produce other positive effects, known as co-benefits. Thermal energy storage technologies are often used in building applications, either integrated into the renewable system or independently, for energy savings or energy efficiency reasons. This paper demonstrates that it is possible to identify the co-benefits of the use of thermal energy storage in buildings by cross-sectorizing the renewable energy and thermal energy storage sectors. To this end, this article first reviews the literature on the co-benefits of renewable energy for building applications, followed by an evaluation on how these co-benefits can be attributed to thermal energy storage in buildings. As a result of a keywords analysis, the main co-benefits of thermal energy storage were identified related to environmental, health, economic, cost, and policies aspects.