New generation of solar plants use molten salt to extend generation PDF Print E-mail
Written by Jim Sloan   
Wednesday, 04 January 2012 07:33
One of the biggest bugaboos for solar or wind energy projects is what you do for electricity when the wind isn’t blowing or the sun isn’t shining.

The answer for a new generation of solar plants going up in the Nevada and California deserts is to use molten salt to store heat, which can be used later to generate power. The system, which uses the salt to heat water to run turbines after the sun goes down, is a feature of the SolarReserve Crescent Dunes project outside of Tonopah. The New York Times calls the Crescent Dunes project and three similar plants in California being built by BrightSource “radically different new power plants.”

Key advantages: By storing energy in salt, plants can still generate electricity at a time of day when its price is at its peak and when generation from solar panels and wind turbines winds down for the day. The Energy Department likes SolarReserve’s prospects so much that it recently gave it a $737 million loan guarantee for the Tonopah development, which is expected to produce 110 megawatts at its peak and will continue producing power for up to 10 hours after the sun goes down.

Why salt? It stores more heat than water and its more efficient that storing power in expensive batteries. And using stored heat to run turbines is cheaper than gas-fired generators, which are the backups of choice in many renewable energy operations.

A recent study for NV Energy found that the utility needed more standby generation to offset the vagaries of photovoltaic production. Molten salt may be radical and new, but researchers are still working on other methods for power generation during those still, dark hours.

CrescentDunes-2















Source: SolarReserve: http://www.tonopahsolar.com/pdfs/FactSheet_CrescentDunes.pdf
 

Add comment


Security code
Refresh