• Crescent Dunes Solar Energy to use super-heated solar energy, molten salt and energy back-up

  • molten-salt-power.jpg
    Solar power generation can be a downright pain when the sun decides to act crafty and hides behind clouds. And we all know just how useless a solar panel is during the night time. Well, things are about to change, or so we hope, with the Department of Energy funding the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada with a whopping $737 million of loan guarantee, headed by rocket-scientists. The project aims to use 20,000 heliostats that will be focused on a single point, steaming up molten salt to 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit which will then be used to create steam that will, in turn, twist turbines and generate energy. Unlike solar panels, the system will store the energy generated in the daytime for use at night.


    The project once completed will generate about 110 megawatts and power 43,000 homes. And yes, we sure won’t be cursing the cloudy sky with a back-up system like this hooked on to our grids!
    molten-salt-chart.jpg
    [Fastcompany]

    Posted in Topics:Alternative Energy, Tags: , on May 24, 2011