Historical development of phase change solar container materials

Concentrated solar power (CSP) technologies are seen to be one of the most promising ways to generate electric power in coming decades. However, due to unstable and intermittent nature of solar energy a. This paper briefly reviews recently published studies between 2016 and 2023 that utilized phase change materials as thermal energy storage in different solar energy systems by collecting more than 74 examples from the open literature.. This overview of the relevant literature thoroughly discusses the applications of phase change materials, including solar collectors, solar stills, solar ponds, solar air heaters, and solar chimneys. Despite the complexity of their availability and high costs, phase change materials are utilized in. . A phase-change material (PCM) is a substance which releases/absorbs sufficient energy at phase transition to provide useful heat or cooling. Generally the transition will be from one of the first two fundamental states of matter - solid and liquid - to the other. The phase transition may also be.