In contrast to photovoltaics and wind turbines where solar/wind energy is converted directly to electrical power needing immediate supply to the grid, heat can be stored for long periods and supplied on demand. Through this inherent capability, CSP plants can play a crucial role on our transition from our current fossil fuels-based energy system to one based to a large extent on fluctuating power from renewable energy sources, being able to supply cost-effective, baseload and peak-load electricity and stabilizing the power grids. The approach set forth herein is targeted on increasing the storage density of air-operated CSP plants by hybridizing sensible with thermochemical storage of solar heat within the same storage unit volume, through the exploitation of reversible reduction-oxidation reactions of air in direct contact with porous ceramic structures made entirely of earth-abundant, inexpensive, nontoxic metal oxides. This approach is entirely compatible with the "modularity" and thus straightforward scalability of current state-of-the-art regenerative sensible heat storage/recovery systems that are manufactured from similar, yet chemically inert inexpensive porous structures like bricks and honeycombs.Historically, coupling redox (reduction-oxidation) chemistries operating on the transition between the oxidized (MeO x ) and the reduced state (MeO x-δ ) of a metal oxide exhibiting multiple The inherent capability of concentrated solar power (CSP) plants for sensible thermal energy storage ensures their continuous operation and is considered their most crucial competitive edge versus other renewable energy sources. The storage density of air-operated CSP plants can be significantly increased by hybridizing sensible with thermochemical storage of solar heat, exploiting reversible air-solid oxide reduction-oxidation reactions. Thermochemical storage-relevant-protocols testing of in-house manufactured lab-scale reticulated porous ceramic foams made entirely of CaMnO 3 perovskite reveals fully reversible reduction-oxidation in up to 46 cycles between 300 and 1100 °C under air, without any deterioration of the foams' structural integrity and exploitable endothermic/exothermic heat effects between 890 and 920 °C linked to an orthorhombic-to-cubic phase transition. Dilatometry experiments with CaMnO 3 bars under identical cyclic conditions demonstrate the correlation of this phase transition to an increase in the thermal expansion coefficient but nevertheless, complete recovery of the initial specimen dimensions upon completion of a full heat-up/cooldown redox cycle. The possibility of shaping into sturdy reticulated porous ceramic structures which exhibit complete dimensional reversibility upon cyclic redox operation, combined with the low cost, earth abundance and environmentally benign character of the constituting elements, render such perovskite compositions extremely attractive for the manufacture of large-scale porous structured objects for exploitation in various thermochemical processes.