The challenge of imbalances between renewable energy supply and grid demand underscores the significance of energy storage in microgrids. This research presents an empirical assessment of the operational capabilities of a full-scale Electrical Thermal Energy Storage (ETES) prototype system named Thermal Energy Storage Power On Demand (TES.POD®), in solar-abundant and harsh desert conditions. The system incorporates a high-temperature commercial-scale latent heat thermal energy storage, integrated with a Stirling engine. Over a continuous span of 10 days, from September 26th to October 6th, 2022, the input and output power, as well as the heat transfer fluid temperatures during charging and discharging were monitored to assess the power block and system efficiencies. Results from the experiments reveal that this prototype effectively maintains a near-constant electricity production rate of 10.5 ± 1 kW for a discharge duration of 13 hours. Average cycle efficiency stands at 23%, while power block efficiency reaches 25%. These findings collectively suggest the system's potential for applications involving long duration thermal energy storage.

Mini-channel heatsinks have proven useful in removing high heat fluxes from microelectronic devices. However, further miniaturization of electronic devices requires significant enhancement in the mini-channel heatsinks’ thermohydraulic characteristics, which depend greatly on the coolant and geometrical configuration of the channel. Therefore, the current study explores the potential of mini-channel heatsinks’ using different coolants (water, nanofluid and supercritical carbon dioxide) and various channel configurations. The effect of various channel configurations on the thermohydraulic characteristics of the mini-channel heat sinks is evaluated numerically for different coolants employing three flow rates (17 g/s, 34 g/s and 50 g/s). Hence, the effects of fin height, spacing and thickness, and mass flow rate on the overall heat transfer coefficient (CHT) and pressure drop (ΔP) are reported for the abovementioned coolants. It is found that increasing the mass flow rate increases both the CHT and ΔP. It is also noted that increasing the fin height and spacing decreases both the CHT and ΔP, as opposed to increasing the thickness, which causes both the CHT and ΔP to increase. Among the three coolants used, the sCO₂ shows superior performance compared to the water and nanofluid and this based on higher CHT and lower ΔP. Moreover, the performance evaluation criterion (PEC) for the sCO₂ is higher than that for the water and nanofluid by 53% at 17 g/s flow rate and 243% at 50 g/s flow rate.

Central tower concentrated solar power (CSP) systems are considered the most mature clean technology to substitute conventional power plants. This work inc