text: After decades of research, EMPA researchers and others are experimenting with concentrated sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as the thermal storage or seasonal reservoir medium for power plants and domestic space-heating. If water is added to solid or concentrated sodium hydroxide (NaOH), heat is released. The dilution is exothermic – chemical energy is released in the form of heat. Conversely, by applying heat energy into a dilute sodium hydroxide solution the water will evaporate so that the solution becomes more concentrated and thus stores the supplied heat as latent chemical energy.