Comments on: Molten Salt May Be Solution to Solar Energy Storage

By: Uriel Ayala

Uriel Ayala — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 20:02:32 +0000

This is true for just one solar power plant at an specific location. Try four or five plants separated by 50 or 100 miles apart and the scene changes. The probability of having most of them under a cloud will turn to be better that the probability of a conventional fosil fuelled plant to be down by an electrical or mechanical failure.

By: rebeca

rebeca — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 23:49:10 +0000

watt do u call a solution when its in a solution

By: Stored Solar Energy Just Peachy with Georgia’s Suniva, Inc. : CleanTechnica

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 15:11:56 +0000

[...] from lithium ion technology, researchers are also developing solar energy storage systems based on molten salt, plant photosynthesis, and even the good old fashioned [...]

By: Sustainable Energy and the Return of the Fly(wheel) : CleanTechnica

Sustainable Energy and the Return of the Fly(wheel) : CleanTechnica — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 12:43:23 +0000

[...] be used to harvest energy from mining operations, or from elevators in buildings. Compared to sustainable energy storage solutions such as molten salt, flywheels may also be more portable and site-adaptable. They are [...]

By: Solar Energy Creating Economic Boom for Nevada : CleanTechnica

Solar Energy Creating Economic Boom for Nevada : CleanTechnica — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 15:08:01 +0000

[...] Thermal Electricity: Can It Replace Coal, Gas, and Oil? Molten Salt May Be Solution to Solar Energy Storage MIT Team Plays With Fire to Create Cheap [...]

By: David - green thoughts

David - green thoughts — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:21:18 +0000

It looks like “kent beuchert” and “kerry beauert” seem to be the same person. I am surprised the names chosen were so similar. But what really gives it away is that they make almost identical points, with identical writing styles. I guess there is strength in numbers, whether real or fictitious….

By: David - green thoughts

David - green thoughts — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:21:00 +0000

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:56:50 +0000

Kent: You don’t really understand what you are talking about. For starters, there is nothing more reliable than wave energy. There is, so far, no large scale demonstration (that I know of), however it has been proposed to provide the major power source for the desalination plant to be built in Victoria, Australia. This is hardly a base-load application, however it has also been proposed for base-load application in Australia’s far north west for the entire City of Broome where huge tidal differences would make its application almost trivial.

Furthermore, Molten-Salt Reactors may be just the thing to rescue the Nuclear industry. There is currently a 1000MWe design with proposed commissioning in 2025 (according to Wikipedia). Solar Thermal can deliver that much quicker than 2025.

Wind farms are doing quite nicely supplying power to many remote Australian towns and a large percentage of some European countries. In fact, why do you claim that they are unreliable? In fact why do you claim any of these technologies are unreliable? They are providing electricity into the grid that would otherwise have to be provided by fossil (or nuclear) fuels, thus reducing the need for the fossil fuel. No one is claiming that the existing state of these technologies is ready to replace fossil fuels entirely. Keep in mind however that, in Australia at least, coal is much cheaper than say solar. But ONLY BECAUSE OF THE HUGE GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES THAT COAL OPERATORS ENJOY. Give those subsidies to the renewable energy providers and the picture changes entirely.

Joe: #1 Don’t know. The Solar Tower in California has been using Molten Salt for years. Don’t know what its duty cycle is or the Molten Salt capacity.

Joe: #2 I would suspect that when engineers build a Molten Salt Heat Exchanger they would figure out a containment vessel and heat exchange pipes that would stand up to the corrosion problem. Glass? Ceramic? Molten Salt does not necessarily mean table salt. Some compounds may be less corrosive than others.

Molten Salt as heat storage for solar thermal has been proposed at least as far back as the 1960′s to my knowledge (work done at University of Arizona, can’t recall the researcher’s name).

Molten Salt is used in the ZEBRA battery which is currently being used to directly replace Lead-Acid batteries in submarines where they *eliminate* corrosion problems. The ZEBRA is also being developed for automobiles.

By: Keith

Keith — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 07:56:00 +0000

Joe: #1 Don’t know. The Solar Tower in California has been using Molten Salt for years. Don’t know what its duty cycle is or the Molten Salt capacity.

Molten Salt as heat storage for solar thermal has been proposed at least as far back as the 1960′s to my knowledge (work done at University of Arizona, can’t recall the researcher’s name).

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 23:35:14 +0000

MOLTEN SALT at 1000 F is the same temperature that the big Coal fire plants run. What I want to know about Molten salt is.

#1. How much Molten salt will we have to store at 1000 F to produce say 1000 mag watts for say 14 hours? That would keep this Power Plant running until the sun came up the next day. Are we talking about a 5 or 10 Million Gallon tank?

#2. What kind of Steel pipe is going to hold up to salt? and how long will the system last before the Molten salt eats holes through the steel?

By the way I think this is one of the best Ideas out there.

Joe in Florida