<p>Utilizing the latent heat of phase change materials (PCMs) for latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) can effectively bridge the gaps in the supply and demand of green energy that arise from time-of-use variations. However, the low thermal conductivity of PCMs significantly hinders internal heat transfer, diminishing the thermal energy storage efficiency. In this work, the thermal energy storage performance of three types of composite phase change materials is investigated: metal foams embedded with PCMs, nano-enhanced PCMs, and nanoparticles combined with metal foam-embedded PCMs. The findings demonstrate that the melting rates of composite PCMs are considerably higher than those of pure PCMs, wherein the embedding of metal foam leads to a more significant increase in melting rates as compared with the addition of nanoparticles. Specifically, as the pores per inch (PPI) or porosity decreases, the melting rates of PCMs embedded with metal foam increase. At a porosity of 89.27% with a PPI of 5, the melting rate increased by 63.22%; however, as the PPI increased from 5 to 20, the melting rate decreased by 14.09%. In addition, the melting rate of nano-enhanced PCMs accelerates with an increasing mass fraction of nanoparticles, achieving increases of 21.23%, 24.88%, and 29.03% at mass fractions of 0.5%, 1%, and 3%, respectively. It is worth noting that among the materials studied, nanoparticle-coupled metal foam with embedded PCMs provides optimal thermal performance, with the efficiency of thermal energy storage during the melting process increasing to 266.69%. This study investigates the potent synergistic effects of metal foams and nanoparticles in enhancing the thermal efficiency of PCMs, offering promising guidance for the design of efficient LHTES systems.</p>