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SolarReserve – Molten Salt for Power!

molten salt power

We have been struggling for some time to look for new means of energy for some time now. Looking towards the sun as a means of ultimate energy is not new and solar powered heaters and automobiles are a common feature now. In this regard, Hamilton Sundstrand, a United Technologies Corp company has announced of a new solar thermal venture known as SolarReserve, a concentrated solar power plant.

The company has been working with the U.S. Renewables Group, especially Rocketdyne. Their team has been researching on using molten salt heat storage technology. The main issue with solar energy was storing. This technology solves it by saving energy in the form of heat with molten salt. This technique was initially used by Rocketdyne for transferring heat in liquid fuel used in rockets. The technique also uses the traditional steam engines, which are run by the steam evaporated by hot salt. The process was exhibited over ten years back and then it was able to produce 10 MW of peak power, where as now, it promises to generate almost 50 times more.

The image shows the similar set up eSolar a solar thermal company is using in partners with Google for the program ‘RE Less Than C’. The set up will have a central collection tower connected with heliostats. Using the concentrated solar power, even SkyFuel is also planning to use its ‘SkyTrough’ technique to use molten salt passing through parabolic troughs, though on quite a different manner.

This technique will prove almost 10 to 20% of increased efficiency level. With various companies and states opting for this alternate method of energy, the concentrated solar technology will rock the market. There is going to be a lot of new plans and solar thermal energy set-ups worldwide in a very near future. Just take a peek at the graph.

Now, we have to all reasons to look forward to the “busy old unruly sun” (Donne)!

Via: Earth2tech

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