Storage is needed for the electric grid.In CSP, the thermal form of solar power, storage is thermal; in hot molten salts.These transfer heat and store it too at about 560°C. This kind of solar uses a thermal power station to generate electricity from steam, like a coal or nuclear plant. These steam turbine systems only need a temperature of around 400°C.
Energy storage is essential to decarbonize heavy industry with solar
A team at Australian National University (ANU) proposes testing a novel combination. Their paper,Development of a Packed Bed Thermal Energy Storage Prototype with Sodium as the Heat Transfer Fluidand aSolarPACES2022 presentationdescribes their work.
Why liquid sodium and magnesia bricks
What is packed bed storage?
Locating the best ceramics for packed beds with liquid metalsfor the heat transfer fluid is another area of high-temperature research interest, for example at the Liquid Metal Laboratory at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), led by Klarissa Niedermeier.
Sodium for heat transfer fluid has history
Then with the recent rise in interest in high-temperature solar processes, sodium started getting research traction again. In Australia,Vast Solar is using sodium as the heat transfer fluidinstead of molten salts in itsCSP planned at Port Augusta. This modular plant has heat transfer fluid in multiple tower receivers heated by solar fields in series.
Simplicity of packed bed thermocline storage for heavy industry
More from Australia’s solar CST research and theHeavy Industry Low Carbon Transition (HILTCRC)program