Comments on: Solar Thermal Storage

By: Cyril R.

Cyril R. — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:00:19 +0000

Altair is ludicrously expensive (several orders of magnitude) even compared to the most uncompetitive thermal storage system.

Altair bats are for mobile aps and quality of power, not for bulk storage.

By: altairian1

altairian1 — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:29:22 +0000

Today Altairnano Nanosafe utility scale batteries are connected to the grid at AES facilities.
AES just founded AES Solar and going global. Expect Altairnano (Alti) to become the #1 Utility Scale Batteries supplier around the world.
Knowlege is power: Now you know.

By: Cyril R.

Cyril R. — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 15:20:26 +0000

Ausra is actually trying to develop underground cavern hot water storage for longer term thermal storage.

That makes the cost caused by pressure issues less relevant. You’d be surprised how much pressure several hundred feet of rock can take!

Excavation cost with modern mining equipment is relatively low. I’ve seen an estimate of total storage system cost of about $16 million installed for a 240MWe load following plant (more than 50% CF).

If they can pull this off, then their system will actually be a lot cheaper than even the most competitive molten salt storage system today.

By: bremstrong

bremstrong — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 19:19:12 +0000

The storage problem is somewhat overblown, in my view. Present power does not require storage, although it would be helpful, so there hasn’t been much effort into ways to creatively shift power consumption.

One simple way is to install a small tank of water, and cool it when power is available, then dump heat into it when cooling is needed. These are already available, don’t cost much, and allow you to shift the air conditioning load arbitrarily.

That’s just one example.

While other consumption, such as lighting, can’t be shifted, the demand can be reduced significantly with future LED based lighting so the storage for lighting could be handled with conventional batteries at reasonable cost.

By: PV is the way

PV is the way — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 15:17:24 +0000

Kent, PV may even be better than solar thermal. Less moving parts, no messy pipes, etc. Ed says it all. Distributed storage. Kent, put this in your pipe and take a puff. Deserts covered with solar (thermal or PV) the storage is in the EV cars and the stationary systems at every home and company. Intelligent grid + reel-to-reel PV + advanced battery tech is one of the best possible solutions today.

By: Ed Ring

Ed Ring — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:27:05 +0000

Kent: We’ve missed you, welcome back. As usual, you take a clear position. I would agree with everything you’re saying, except I would not write off wind and PV; here’s why: While utility scale storage for wind and PV electricity is not something we can yet easily visualize, distributed storage for these sources of energy are coming along fine.

Low cost stationary storage for electricity at the 12+ kWh level per unit is already here - ref. Gridpoint - and additional solutions are coming all the time. Distributed PV with distributed storage could still be a big part of our renewable energy future, particularly in places in the world where there isn’t already a well-established utility grid.

By: kent beuchert

kent beuchert — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 06:08:43 +0000

It has become pretty clear that only solar thermal and hydroelectric and some geothermal are the only viable methods of producing significant amounts of power. Wind is far too low in energy and found in inconvenient places and times. Solar photovoltaic cannot use molton salt storage and thus produces electricity just as valueless as wind.
Both wind and solar photovoltaic are headed for the dustbins of technology history. Solar thermal is the only technology deserving of subsidies, except that, guess what? It doesn’t NEED any.