«  
  »

Continual power from solar

Bob Morris, on Jan 4, 2008, 1:30 pm

molten salt solar energy

This would appear to solve one drawback of solar energy, that power can not be created continuously. By storing heat to drive turbines, power can be created even at night. WSJ has more.

Category: Renewable energy, Solar power | 2 comments - (Comments are closed)

  • http://www.asymptoticlife.com DJ

    Wow. Sodium chloride melts at 801 degrees Celsius (about 1475 degrees farenheit). To use solar to heat it to a temp that is significantly hotter (so the cooled salt remains molten) sounds like quite a feat.

  • http://www.CaroleEstrup.com Jansen

    This sure seems like an awful lot of trouble – I’m guessing it is set forth by power companies trying to save their trillion mile rights-of-way across the world. Solar arrays (Photo-voltaic) need no vast lands to set up. Each home and business has plenty of rooftop and parking lot space to house all the PVs required for their use. Downtown areas of large cities may need some kind of ‘grid’, but the average community needs only the wiring which came with their individual house – that is what power companies are fighting. The knowledge that they are as obsolete as coal and nuclear … what to do with existing power lines? Hook them into a wind power grid for backup … Van Jones’ new book, The Green Collar Economy, is a good start for rethinking our needs and our goals.