Thermal energy storage, or TES, is a core decarbonization lever for Asia because heat accounts for about 50 percent of global final energy use, roughly 25 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and more than one-third of energy-related carbon dioxide. Adoption is timely in Asia, where energy demand has more than doubled since 2000 and remains dominated by fossil fuels, creating both reliability gaps and pressure to decarbonize.
TES technologies include sensible, latent, and thermochemical systems. Sensible heat storage is the most widely deployed, latent heat systems using phase change materials are common in commercial buildings, and thermochemical systems offer the highest energy density for long-duration storage. In Asia, the near-term investment focus is on latent phase change materials, including inorganic salt hydrates that operate between 0 and 100 degrees Celsius for building cooling and hot water applications, and inorganic salts or eutectic mixtures operating between 0 and 750 degrees Celsius for industrial and building cooling lasting from hours to days. These have strong potential in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
In the longer term, thermochemical TES based on hydroxide cycles such as calcium oxide and calcium hydroxide at 400 to 600 degrees Celsius and iron oxide redox cycles at 600 to 900 degrees Celsius can deliver multi-day to seasonal storage for industrial parks and steel or chemical hubs. Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and Thailand are emerging as high-potential hosts for these systems.
