The storage system in a concentrated solar plant is considered an important concern to increase the capacity factor of the plant by producing power during the night or in cloudy days. This paper presents different storage materials, and introduces several storage systems available. Moreover, the paper is focused on the analysis of a thermocline system, which consists on a single tank that typically works with molten salt and quartzite rock as storage media. A simulation model of heat charging and discharging process is designed with the numerical solution of non dimensional Schumann equations. These equations describe the heat transfer between the thermal fluid and the filler material. The model has been validated with experimental data, and the results have been compared with other models. Then, the proposed model is then used to design an alternative storage system for the solar plant AndaSol I. Moreover, the model has been used analyze the influence of the ratio between height and diameter of the tank in the energy storage efficiency. Finally, a comparison between three thermal storage fluids has been made in order to find out which Heat Transfer Fluid is better for the designed thermal storage tank.

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