World’s largest concentrated solar plant switches on in the Sahara
Morocco has switched on what will be the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant.
The new site near the city of Ouarzazate could produce enough energy to power over one million homes by 2018 and reduce carbon emissions by an estimated 760,000 tons per year, according to the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) finance group.
The solar plant, called the Noor complex, uses concentrating solar power (CSP) which is more expensive to install than the widely used photovoltaic panels, but unlike them, enables the storage of energy for nights and cloudy days.
Mirrors focus the sun’s light and heat up a liquid, which, when mixed with water, reaches around 400 degree Celsius. The steam produced from this process drives a turbine and generates electrical power.
A cylinder full of salt is melted by the warmth from the mirrors during the day, and stays hot enough at night to provide up to three hours of power, according to World Bank, who partially financed construction of the plant through a $97 million loan from the Clean Technology Fund.
Article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/08/africa/ouarzazate-morocco-solar-plant/
#science #environment #solarplant #electricity #carbonemissions
Using salt to store the energy does sound innovative and more sustainable than using batteries, although 3 hours worth isn't a lot. Renewable still have some way to come in satisfying our energy needs over fossil fuels, but that is a lot down to storing when the wind isn't blowing or the sin isn't shining
ReplyDeleteSam Collett -- if we can get better international infrastructure, the sun is always shining somewhere. Plus there's at least the possibility that we're about to see a ton more batteries come online in the form of electric cars: it'd be nice if we could store excess grid energy in them and then pull some when needed, maybe via some contract with energy companies that says cars get free power but aren't guaranteed to be full.
ReplyDeleteWhat Tesla is doing with batteries is a step in the right direction, although I do think there are more improvements to be made in storage, maybe using graphene - although probably a decade or so away as new manufacturing methods would be required to mass produce. Saying that, it would be great if you could produce or store electricity on a small scale, maybe utilising 3D printers somehow. That would impact on the bottom-line of utility companies if it was easy and cheap to generate and store your own energy, so there would be resistance and lobbying of the government to change laws or block such technology
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