Tuesday, December 1, 2009

A Brief Explanation Regarding Solar Thermal Energy Storage


By Evans D. Smith

One of the most vital aspects to using solar thermal energy is finding and using the best solar thermal energy storage solutions. The good news is that latest solar thermal technologies are helping in beating some of the toughest challenges facing those that have an interest in using and storing solar thermal energy. When it comes to understanding what it takes to get solar thermal energy storage solutions it's got to be claimed that these new technologies can help in storing solar thermal energy so this caught energy can be employed at night and even if it is raining outside.

Molten Salt

Countries such as Spain and Australia and even the Southwestern regions in America are looking to use these new technologies to affect better and more efficient solar thermal energy storage. One solution that has been found to be very effective and which is being used in Spain is to use molten salt as the best solar thermal energy storage medium. This molten salt can store the heat from the sun for many hours thereby ensuring that even when the sun has gone down that there will still be sufficient solar thermal energy available to power turbines and so produce electricity - even when there is no sunshine available such as happens at night.

A plant in the south of Spain known as the Andasol 1 has only just begun operating (in the month of November, 2008) and it is able to, thanks to its unique method of affecting solar thermal energy storage, generate fifty megawatts of power which is sufficient amount of electricity to power up between fifty and sixty thousand homes for an entire year.

It is believed that the next such solar thermal plant (to be called Andasol 2) will become online in the summer of 2009 and there are plans to construct Andasol 3 as well. You can imagine what the combined solar thermal energy storage of all these three plants will be and when they all begin working (as expected in the year 2011) then there should be enough electricity available from these plants to power up one hundred and fifty thousand households.

A common parable about using solar thermal electrical energy is that it is electricity that's only going to be available during the daytime. this is a parable which has been propounded on misunderstandings and stupidity rather than on hard facts. The straightforward fact is that with correct solar thermal energy storage it is feasible to provide electricity even if there's no sun about.

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