Storing the Sun: Molten Salt Provides Highly Efficient Thermal Storage By Sequoia Published: June 27, 2008 Email
Storing the Sun: Molten Salt Provides Highly Efficient Thermal Storage
by Julie Way
California, United States [RenewableEnergyWorld.com]
Despite their widespread use, solar technologies suffer the limitation of most renewable technologies: an unpredictable operating profile due to weather variations. However, using the highly efficient properties of molten salt for heat transfer, one technology insulates electricity production from weather volatility and, more importantly, it offers the capability to dispatch electricity as needed without requiring the use of natural gas. This technology is a concentrating solar power (CSP) technology, built around a proprietary central receiver tower and molten salt loop.
Thermal storage is widely regarded as the future for the renewable energy campaign because, unlike many intermittent renewable resources such as wind energy, it offers a "zero-emissions" technology with firm capacity and dispatchability characteristics. The thermal storage system provides an added benefit: allowing the plant to be designed to optimize the electricity load profile to meet specific market needs. A plant can be designed, for instance, to maximize electricity production during a period of peak demand or to continue to produce electricity after the sun goes down.
