A specific issue concerning solar power is that it is inconsistent due to irregular sunshine and the simple fact that old Sol stays hidden in the evening. That said some solar companies are resorting to liquefied salt to deal with the problem. Recently SolarReserve, a new venture based in Santa Monica, California announced a plan to construct a one hundred megawatt solar facility in the Nevada desert. Their core business is capturing solar energy with Concentrated solar power and mirrors and they store the power using ultra heated liquid salt. SolarReserve plans to sell their generated power to the NV Energy, a Nevada utility company.
The installation is named the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project and it is located close to the community of Tonopah, Nye County, Nevada. It is under development by a sub business of SolarReserve called Tonopah Solar Energy, LLC. The power plant is supposed to break ground near the end of 2010 and it is predicted it will generate four hundred eighty thousand MWh’s per year, able to feed current to approximately seven five thousand residences at its top production.
There are numerous companies out there constructing solar thermal power facilities [plants that capture sun irradiation with mirrors and lenses that focus sunlight toward a steam turbine], SolarReserve is one of a few businesses investigating the use of super heated salt to store their power. SolarReserve has licensed the use of the technology for energy stowage from United Technologies Corp, a Rocketdyne – UTC entity. NV Energy Exec’s said this storing tech capability was a large part of why they chose SolarReserve as a power purveyor.
SolarReserve has big plans and wants to construct five Gigawatts of utility type solar thermal plants globally, ranging from thirty to five hundred MWs. They have already applied for a one hundred fifty MW installation to be built in the California desert east of Palm Springs, California. Rocketdyne had demonstrated the technology as far back as ten years ago at a plant known as “Solar II,” built with the DOE in Barstow, California.
Salt is melted at 221 °C [430 °F] and it stays molten at 288 °C [550 °F] in insulated “cold” storage containers. The Liquefied salt is then forced through solar panel troughs where the temperature from the concentrated sunlight is 566 °C [1051 °F]. From here, it is transferred to a heated storage container that is insulated well enough to enable storage for upwards of a week.
When current is required, hot salt is pushed into a conventional steam generation unit to create a super hot steam for a turbine, same as would be utilized for a coal, oil or nuclear power facility. A one hundred MW turbine would require tanks roughly thirty feet high and about eighty feet around in order for it to function for four hours using this model.
SolarReserve is looking to acquire substantial financing so it can achieve its objectives. Established in early 2008, SolarReserve raised a robust one hundred forty million dollars in the autumn of ’08 in second round capital funding courtesy of Citi Alternative Investments, Sustainable Investments, Good Energy and other money partners, and they say their wallet is filled up until 2011.
SolarReserve has some competitive company examining the use of molten salt storage including SkyFuel, and their “SkyTrough” technology and the renewable power behemoth Abengoa out of Spain.
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