What Is Solar Thermal Energy Storage
One of the most significant aspects to using solar thermal energy is finding and using the best solar thermal energy storage solutions. The excellent news is that latest solar thermal technologies are helping in beating some of the toughest challenges facing people who have an interest in using and storing solar thermal energy. When it comes to understanding what is required to get solar thermal energy storage solutions it must be announced 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 like Spain and Australia and even the Southwestern regions in America are looking to use these new technologies to affect better and more effective solar thermal energy storage. One solution which has been discovered to be extremely effective and which is being employed 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 so making sure that even if the sun has gone down that there will continue to be acceptable solar thermal energy available to power turbines and so produce electricity even if there isn’t any sunshine available like occurs at night.
A plant in the south of Spain called the Andasol one has just started operating ( in the month of Nov , 2008 ) and it is ready to, thanks to its unique methodology of influencing solar thermal energy storage, generate 50 MW of power which is acceptable quantity of electricity to power up between 50 and 60 thousand houses for a complete year.
It is thought the next such solar thermal plant ( to be called Andasol two ) will become online in the summertime of 2009 and there are plans to assemble Andasol three also. You can think what the mixed solar thermal energy storage of all of these 3 plants will be and when all of them begin working ( as predicted in the year 2011 ) then there should be sufficient electricity available from these plants to power up one 150 thousand homes.
A common myth about using solar thermal electric energy is that it is electricity that is only going to be available during the daytime. However, this is a myth that has been propounded on misconceptions and ignorance rather than on hard facts. The simple fact is that with proper solar thermal energy storage it is possible to provide electricity even when there is no sun about.
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Evans D. Smith
