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Molten salt has lengthy been positioned because the workhorse of excessive temperature thermal storage. Its story started with analysis within the Nineteen Eighties and early deployment in Spanish parabolic trough crops within the 2000s. The expertise was interesting on paper. A combination of sodium and potassium nitrate has a excessive warmth capability, a density nearly twice that of water, and might stay liquid over a large temperature vary. Two insulated metal tanks, one chilly and one scorching, permit operators to flow into the salt by way of photo voltaic receivers or electrical heaters to cost, after which by way of warmth exchangers to generate steam when discharge is required.
The design scales nicely. Crescent Dunes in Nevada and Noor III in Morocco each constructed tanks massive sufficient to carry over a thousand megawatt hours of thermal power. Gemasolar in Spain demonstrated steady twenty 4 hour operation with fifteen hours of molten salt storage. That observe report of actual crops delivering dispatchable photo voltaic electrical energy gave molten salt its credibility and nonetheless makes it a well-liked reference level for mission financiers. But behind the engineering drawings and case research lie cussed weaknesses that restrict its position going ahead.
Researching my latest piece on concentrated solar energy failures Ivanpah and Heliogen jogged my memory how central molten…
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Author : tech365
Publish date : 2025-09-28 12:38:00
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