2010 Jan 20
A U.S. and Australian partnership has introduced a new solar thermal storage approach it believes could be disruptive to the fledgling solar storage industry.
Unveiling it for the first time at the World Future Summit in Abu Dhabi, Solar Fusion Power Director Wayne Bliesner described the system as having ten times the density of conventional molten salt solar storage.
"Twenty-four hour solar storage becomes easy with this technology," he told the Cleantech Group. "We could do thirty to forty hours."
The company's approach uses calcium hydride, a simple, non-toxic salt.
Under Solar Fusion's plan, solar heat is collected by an array of heliostats directed to a central down mirror, eliminating the requirement for a power tower.
The heat, focused on a power head immersed in liquid calcium, chemically separates the calcium and hydrogen during the day. At night, the hydrogen, having been collected in a separate tank, is pumped back and reacts with the calcium to reform as calcium hydride.
The reaction runs at approximately 1,000 degrees, and powers a dual shell Stirling engine of Bliesner's design to create power after dark.
"We can generate electricity continuously unlike other solar technologies," said Bleisner, inventor of the technology and a former Boeing engineer.
Read more: http://cleantech.com/news/5536/startup-247-solar-storage-breakthrough
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