The global thermal energy storage market was valued at USD 6.40 billion in 2025. It is estimated at USD 7.20 billion in 2026 and is projected to reach USD 22.97 billion by 2036, growing at a CAGR of 12.3% over the 2026-2036 forecast period. This report assesses the market in depth, covering heat demand and decarbonization pathways, district heating and cooling networks, storage and heat-to-power technologies, the economics and levelized cost of heat, policy and regulation, major operating and planned projects, the value chain, and competition.
The study covers systems that hold energy as heat or cold so it can be captured when it is plentiful or cheap and used later. It includes sensible storage, where heat is held in molten salt, water, or solid materials like sand, rock, concrete, brick, and carbon; latent storage based on ice and other phase change materials; and thermochemical storage. Durations run from intraday load shifting through multi-day and seasonal storage, and operating temperatures run from low-grade systems for buildings and district networks up to industrial units working above 1,000 degrees Celsius. End uses cover industrial steam and process heat, district heating and cooling, concentrated solar power (CSP), power-to-heat-to-power, building HVAC, and cooling and heat recovery at data centers. Pumped hydro and electrochemical batteries are not part of the study.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), heat is the single largest energy end use, making up almost half of global final energy consumption, and most industrial heat still comes from burning gas, coal, and oil. Projects are now reaching utility scale: Finland's Vantaa Energy is building Varanto, a seasonal store of 90 gigawatt-hours that will keep about 1.1 million cubic meters of pressurized water, heated to as much as 140 degrees Celsius, in three caverns underground; the project is scheduled to finish in 2028 and is expected to cost roughly EUR 200 million. The IEA further expects global data center power demand to roughly double to about 945 terawatt-hours by 2030, which creates a large new pool of waste heat for storage to capture.
High upfront costs and long payback periods compared with gas boilers restrain adoption, especially after natural gas prices fell from their 2022 peak. Power-to-heat systems pay off only when they can charge with low-cost electricity, so high grid fees, flat tariffs, and long grid connection queues can weaken the business case. Converting stored heat back into electricity recovers much less energy than lithium-ion batteries do, which limits thermal storage in power-to-power uses mainly to long-duration storage and CSP. Policy changes, including July 2025 U.S. legislation that altered clean energy credit timelines and swings in EU carbon prices, add uncertainty. Further challenges include site space and integration with existing boilers and steam systems, limited performance records for young developers, the durability of salts, refractories, and phase change materials under repeated cycling, and competition from batteries and industrial heat pumps.
Opportunities are emerging in data center heat reuse and cooling, where storage can feed waste heat into district networks or shift cooling loads to off-peak hours. CSP with long-duration molten salt storage offers dispatchable solar power in sunny regions, as at Dubai's Noor Energy 1 (15 hours of storage) and Chile's Cerro Dominador (17.5 hours). Electrified steam for food, chemical, pulp and paper, and bioprocessing plants is a large opportunity, since much of this steam is needed at temperatures that commercial thermal batteries already reach. Key trends include the fast scale-up of industrial heat batteries, very large seasonal storage facilities, solid-media storage in cheap and abundant materials, and hybrid systems that combine storage with heat pumps, electric boilers, and waste heat.
By technology, the report covers molten salt, water-based (tank, pit & cavern, and aquifer & borehole storage), solid media (carbon, brick & ceramic, concrete & rock, and sand), latent heat & phase change materials (ice storage and other phase change materials), and thermochemical storage. Water-based storage is expected to hold the largest share in 2026, as hot water tanks, pit stores, and chilled water systems are mature, low-cost, and widely used in district heating, district cooling, and buildings. Solid media is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, driven by the scale-up of industrial heat batteries that use carbon, brick, rock, and sand, which are cheap, safe, and free from battery metal supply limits. Molten salt remains the standard storage medium in CSP plants.
By storage duration, the study examines short-duration (up to 10 hours), long-duration (10 to 100 hours), and seasonal storage. Short-duration storage is expected to account for the largest share in 2026, reflecting its broad use for daily load shifting in buildings, district heating networks, and industrial sites, where storage is charged overnight or at midday and used within the same day. Seasonal storage is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, supported by very large builds such as Varanto in Finland, the push to decarbonize district heating, and the large gap between summer and winter heat demand in northern Europe.
The temperature range analysis covers low temperature (below 100 degrees Celsius), medium temperature (100 to 400 degrees Celsius), and high temperature (above 400 degrees Celsius). Low-temperature storage is expected to hold the largest share in 2026, as district heating, building cooling, and hot water storage operate in this range and represent the largest installed base. High-temperature storage is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, driven by industrial heat batteries that supply high-pressure steam and process heat, some of which run above 1,000 degrees Celsius.
By application, the report covers industrial process heat (steam generation and hot air & direct process heat), district heating & cooling, power generation (concentrated solar power and power-to-heat-to-power), buildings HVAC, and data centers. District heating & cooling is expected to represent the largest share in 2026, owing to the long-established use of storage in district energy systems in Europe and Asia and the need to balance daily and seasonal heat demand. Industrial process heat is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, as manufacturers electrify steam and process heat with thermal batteries, new projects move from pilots to commercial orders, and carbon pricing raises the cost of fossil heat. Data centers are an emerging application for both cooling storage and heat reuse.
By end user, the study examines industrial (food & beverage, chemicals, pulp & paper, and bioprocessing & other industries), utilities & district energy operators, commercial, and residential users. Utilities & district energy operators are expected to hold the largest share in 2026, given their large district heating stores and molten salt storage at CSP plants. The industrial segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, as food, chemical, and bioprocessing producers spend on electrified process heat, corporate decarbonization targets, and the growing availability of cheap renewable power.
Europe is expected to hold the largest share of the global market in 2026, where dense district heating systems, a carbon price on fossil heat, and policy support for renewable and recovered heat favor storage. Finland is home to the Varanto project and to sand-based storage developer Polar Night Energy, Denmark operates large pit thermal stores for district heating, and Germany's Kraftblock and Norway's Kyoto Group and EnergyNest are developing industrial heat storage. The EU's data center waste heat rules add a further source of demand across the region.
North America is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, driven by the fast scaling of industrial heat batteries and federal support. Antora doubled its manufacturing capacity in San Jose, California, in spring 2026 and plans a second U.S. factory, Rondo Energy and other developers are building industrial projects, thermal storage now qualifies for federal investment tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, and ice and chilled water storage are common in U.S. commercial buildings and campuses. Asia-Pacific holds a significant share, led by China's CSP projects with molten salt storage and its large northern district heating networks, along with building cooling in Japan and South Korea and CSP and industrial heat projects in Australia and India. In Latin America, Chile leads through Cerro Dominador and mining demand, while in the Middle East & Africa, the UAE and Morocco host large CSP complexes and Gulf states are investing in district cooling.
The market brings together heat battery start-ups, CSP and molten salt engineering groups, district heating storage specialists, building cooling storage manufacturers, and developers of phase change materials and power-to-heat-to-power systems. Buyers compare suppliers on cost per kilowatt-hour stored, maximum temperature, efficiency, service life, build speed, fit with plant processes, and whether projects can be financed and qualify for incentives. Leading players are expanding factories, signing large industrial and utility clients, setting up project finance partnerships, and pairing storage with heat pumps, electric boilers, and renewable supply; Antora, for example, reported a USD 550 million Series C round in 2026.
Key companies profiled in the report include Antora Energy, Inc. (U.S.), Rondo Energy, Inc. (U.S.), Kraftblock GmbH (Germany), Brenmiller Energy Ltd. (Israel), Kyoto Group AS (Norway), EnergyNest AS (Norway), Electrified Thermal Solutions, Inc. (U.S.), Polar Night Energy Oy (Finland), Malta Inc. (U.S.), DN Tanks, Inc. (U.S.), Trane Technologies plc (CALMAC) (Ireland/U.S.), Baltimore Aircoil Company, Inc. (U.S.), Aalborg CSP A/S (Denmark), SENER Group (Spain), and Cosin Solar Technology Co., Ltd. (China).
The study covers systems that hold energy as heat or cold so it can be captured when it is plentiful or cheap and used later. It includes sensible storage, where heat is held in molten salt, water, or solid materials like sand, rock, concrete, brick, and carbon; latent storage based on ice and other phase change materials; and thermochemical storage. Durations run from intraday load shifting through multi-day and seasonal storage, and operating temperatures run from low-grade systems for buildings and district networks up to industrial units working above 1,000 degrees Celsius. End uses cover industrial steam and process heat, district heating and cooling, concentrated solar power (CSP), power-to-heat-to-power, building HVAC, and cooling and heat recovery at data centers. Pumped hydro and electrochemical batteries are not part of the study.
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), heat is the single largest energy end use, making up almost half of global final energy consumption, and most industrial heat still comes from burning gas, coal, and oil. Projects are now reaching utility scale: Finland's Vantaa Energy is building Varanto, a seasonal store of 90 gigawatt-hours that will keep about 1.1 million cubic meters of pressurized water, heated to as much as 140 degrees Celsius, in three caverns underground; the project is scheduled to finish in 2028 and is expected to cost roughly EUR 200 million. The IEA further expects global data center power demand to roughly double to about 945 terawatt-hours by 2030, which creates a large new pool of waste heat for storage to capture.
Market Dynamics
The market is driven mainly by the need to cut emissions from industrial heat in sectors such as food and beverage, chemicals, paper, and bioprocessing, where thermal batteries allow plants to charge on cheap renewable power and deliver steam continuously. Antora Energy's 5-gigawatt-hour, 50-megawatt installation at the POET bioprocessing site in South Dakota, with more than 200 thermal batteries installed from start of construction to commissioning in under a year, shows that the approach works at industrial scale. Growth in wind and solar output, which pushes power prices very low or negative at times, makes flexible power-to-heat demand more valuable to grids. The expansion of district heating and waste heat recovery adds further demand, as storage balances daily and seasonal gaps; in the Nordic countries, summer heat use is only about one-tenth of the winter peak, and under the EU's revised Energy Efficiency Directive, big data centers must put their waste heat to use where this is feasible.High upfront costs and long payback periods compared with gas boilers restrain adoption, especially after natural gas prices fell from their 2022 peak. Power-to-heat systems pay off only when they can charge with low-cost electricity, so high grid fees, flat tariffs, and long grid connection queues can weaken the business case. Converting stored heat back into electricity recovers much less energy than lithium-ion batteries do, which limits thermal storage in power-to-power uses mainly to long-duration storage and CSP. Policy changes, including July 2025 U.S. legislation that altered clean energy credit timelines and swings in EU carbon prices, add uncertainty. Further challenges include site space and integration with existing boilers and steam systems, limited performance records for young developers, the durability of salts, refractories, and phase change materials under repeated cycling, and competition from batteries and industrial heat pumps.
Opportunities are emerging in data center heat reuse and cooling, where storage can feed waste heat into district networks or shift cooling loads to off-peak hours. CSP with long-duration molten salt storage offers dispatchable solar power in sunny regions, as at Dubai's Noor Energy 1 (15 hours of storage) and Chile's Cerro Dominador (17.5 hours). Electrified steam for food, chemical, pulp and paper, and bioprocessing plants is a large opportunity, since much of this steam is needed at temperatures that commercial thermal batteries already reach. Key trends include the fast scale-up of industrial heat batteries, very large seasonal storage facilities, solid-media storage in cheap and abundant materials, and hybrid systems that combine storage with heat pumps, electric boilers, and waste heat.
Segment Analysis
The report analyzes the market by technology, storage duration, temperature range, application, end user, and geography, helping stakeholders identify where heat storage demand and investment are moving.By technology, the report covers molten salt, water-based (tank, pit & cavern, and aquifer & borehole storage), solid media (carbon, brick & ceramic, concrete & rock, and sand), latent heat & phase change materials (ice storage and other phase change materials), and thermochemical storage. Water-based storage is expected to hold the largest share in 2026, as hot water tanks, pit stores, and chilled water systems are mature, low-cost, and widely used in district heating, district cooling, and buildings. Solid media is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, driven by the scale-up of industrial heat batteries that use carbon, brick, rock, and sand, which are cheap, safe, and free from battery metal supply limits. Molten salt remains the standard storage medium in CSP plants.
By storage duration, the study examines short-duration (up to 10 hours), long-duration (10 to 100 hours), and seasonal storage. Short-duration storage is expected to account for the largest share in 2026, reflecting its broad use for daily load shifting in buildings, district heating networks, and industrial sites, where storage is charged overnight or at midday and used within the same day. Seasonal storage is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, supported by very large builds such as Varanto in Finland, the push to decarbonize district heating, and the large gap between summer and winter heat demand in northern Europe.
The temperature range analysis covers low temperature (below 100 degrees Celsius), medium temperature (100 to 400 degrees Celsius), and high temperature (above 400 degrees Celsius). Low-temperature storage is expected to hold the largest share in 2026, as district heating, building cooling, and hot water storage operate in this range and represent the largest installed base. High-temperature storage is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, driven by industrial heat batteries that supply high-pressure steam and process heat, some of which run above 1,000 degrees Celsius.
By application, the report covers industrial process heat (steam generation and hot air & direct process heat), district heating & cooling, power generation (concentrated solar power and power-to-heat-to-power), buildings HVAC, and data centers. District heating & cooling is expected to represent the largest share in 2026, owing to the long-established use of storage in district energy systems in Europe and Asia and the need to balance daily and seasonal heat demand. Industrial process heat is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, as manufacturers electrify steam and process heat with thermal batteries, new projects move from pilots to commercial orders, and carbon pricing raises the cost of fossil heat. Data centers are an emerging application for both cooling storage and heat reuse.
By end user, the study examines industrial (food & beverage, chemicals, pulp & paper, and bioprocessing & other industries), utilities & district energy operators, commercial, and residential users. Utilities & district energy operators are expected to hold the largest share in 2026, given their large district heating stores and molten salt storage at CSP plants. The industrial segment is expected to grow at the highest CAGR, as food, chemical, and bioprocessing producers spend on electrified process heat, corporate decarbonization targets, and the growing availability of cheap renewable power.
Regional Analysis
The report covers North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and the Middle East & Africa, with analysis of 21 countries and four rest-of-region groups. The analysis considers heat demand, district networks, industrial energy use, power prices, and policy support in each market.Europe is expected to hold the largest share of the global market in 2026, where dense district heating systems, a carbon price on fossil heat, and policy support for renewable and recovered heat favor storage. Finland is home to the Varanto project and to sand-based storage developer Polar Night Energy, Denmark operates large pit thermal stores for district heating, and Germany's Kraftblock and Norway's Kyoto Group and EnergyNest are developing industrial heat storage. The EU's data center waste heat rules add a further source of demand across the region.
North America is expected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period, driven by the fast scaling of industrial heat batteries and federal support. Antora doubled its manufacturing capacity in San Jose, California, in spring 2026 and plans a second U.S. factory, Rondo Energy and other developers are building industrial projects, thermal storage now qualifies for federal investment tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act, and ice and chilled water storage are common in U.S. commercial buildings and campuses. Asia-Pacific holds a significant share, led by China's CSP projects with molten salt storage and its large northern district heating networks, along with building cooling in Japan and South Korea and CSP and industrial heat projects in Australia and India. In Latin America, Chile leads through Cerro Dominador and mining demand, while in the Middle East & Africa, the UAE and Morocco host large CSP complexes and Gulf states are investing in district cooling.
Competitive Landscape
The report reviews key growth strategies, competitive benchmarking, the competitive dashboard (industry leaders, market differentiators, vanguards, and emerging companies), and 2025 market share/rank analysis, with company profiles of industrial heat battery developers, district heating and long-duration storage companies, building cooling storage companies, and CSP and molten salt storage companies, covering business overview, financial overview, product portfolio, strategic developments, and SWOT analysis.The market brings together heat battery start-ups, CSP and molten salt engineering groups, district heating storage specialists, building cooling storage manufacturers, and developers of phase change materials and power-to-heat-to-power systems. Buyers compare suppliers on cost per kilowatt-hour stored, maximum temperature, efficiency, service life, build speed, fit with plant processes, and whether projects can be financed and qualify for incentives. Leading players are expanding factories, signing large industrial and utility clients, setting up project finance partnerships, and pairing storage with heat pumps, electric boilers, and renewable supply; Antora, for example, reported a USD 550 million Series C round in 2026.
Key companies profiled in the report include Antora Energy, Inc. (U.S.), Rondo Energy, Inc. (U.S.), Kraftblock GmbH (Germany), Brenmiller Energy Ltd. (Israel), Kyoto Group AS (Norway), EnergyNest AS (Norway), Electrified Thermal Solutions, Inc. (U.S.), Polar Night Energy Oy (Finland), Malta Inc. (U.S.), DN Tanks, Inc. (U.S.), Trane Technologies plc (CALMAC) (Ireland/U.S.), Baltimore Aircoil Company, Inc. (U.S.), Aalborg CSP A/S (Denmark), SENER Group (Spain), and Cosin Solar Technology Co., Ltd. (China).
How This Report Helps
- Provides reliable market size estimates and long-term forecasts for the global thermal energy storage market through 2036.
- Explains how industrial heat decarbonization, renewable power growth, and district heating expansion are shaping demand.
- Compares molten salt, water-based, solid media, phase change, and thermochemical storage on cost, temperature, and use.
- Identifies growth opportunities across technology, storage duration, temperature range, application, end user, and region.
- Reviews the economics and levelized cost of heat against gas boilers, heat pumps, and batteries.
- Benchmarks heat battery developers, district heating storage firms, cooling storage makers, and CSP storage suppliers.
- Supports investment, procurement, and project planning decisions for industrial users, utilities, developers, and investors.
Key Questions Answered
- How large is the global thermal energy storage market today, and how will it grow through 2036?
- How quickly are industrial heat batteries moving from pilots to commercial-scale projects?
- What are the main drivers, restraints, opportunities, challenges, and trends shaping the market?
- How competitive is stored heat against gas boilers, heat pumps, and lithium-ion batteries?
- What role will seasonal storage and data center waste heat play in district heating?
- Which technology, storage duration, temperature range, application, and end user will grow the fastest?
- Which regions and countries offer the most attractive opportunities for thermal storage suppliers?
- Who are the leading companies in the market, and how do they compare?
- What projects, financing rounds, and manufacturing expansions are shaping competition?
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Research Methodology
4. Market Overview
5. Thermal Energy Storage Market, by Technology
6. Thermal Energy Storage Market, by Storage Duration
7. Thermal Energy Storage Market, by Temperature Range
8. Thermal Energy Storage Market, by Application
9. Thermal Energy Storage Market, by End User
10. Thermal Energy Storage Market, by Geography
11. Competitive Landscape
12. Company Profiles
13. Appendix
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
Companies Mentioned
- Antora Energy, Inc.
- Rondo Energy, Inc.
- Kraftblock GmbH
- Brenmiller Energy Ltd.
- Kyoto Group AS
- EnergyNest AS
- Electrified Thermal Solutions, Inc.
- Polar Night Energy Oy
- Malta Inc.
- DN Tanks, Inc.
- Trane Technologies plc
- Baltimore Aircoil Company, Inc.
- Aalborg CSP A/S
- SENER Group
- Cosin Solar Technology Co., Ltd.
- among others.
