[Sharlin]

The whole point is that the thermal energy is used directly, via district heating. These are not meant to store energy for electricity production (though they could do that if really needed – emergency power for various facilities? Maybe not worth it compared to diesel.)

Heat from existing thermal power plants can be stored directly and later distributed with no conversion loss; excess electricity from renewables can be turned to heat at 100% efficiency, but the problem is that peak heat demand and peak electricity supply do not typically coincide. Heat batteries are meant to solve that problem.

[jnsaff2]

The link in the OP comment is however talking about electricity generation (not excluding heat use tho) and energy being stored from excess PV.

[Sharlin]

Ah, sorry, missed the context.