Thermal storage

Storing thermal energy is an interesting part of energy technology. Most storage is implemented either to reduce costs or to make use of intermittently available resources. Cycles may be meteorological, diurnal, tidal, or annual. Considering resources, wind would be mostly meteorological; solar meteorological, diurnal, and annual; tidal clearly tidal; and wave meteorlogical.

Examples

Utah state has built a thermal storage tank of two million gallons of water, which it cools at night then uses during the day to cool. Every night, it pays less for electricity due to demand-management programs and simultaneously cools more efficiently due to lower ambient temperatures. (see USU Installs Tank to Cool Campus Buildings More Efficiently, Feb. 24, 2011 http://usu.edu/ust/index.cfm?article=48832 )