Generating Electricity with Molten Salt
published on Tue. Jan. 15th, '08 by Sita ChaitanyaA new company called SolarReserve has developed a more efficient way to use solar power to generate electricity. Historically, the main drawback of solar power is that it doesn't work at night or on cloudy days.
This new method gets away from that problem by using mirrors spaced all over the ground that are pointed at a central tower. The sun's rays bounce off the mirrors and heat up the contents of the tower. The interesting thing is that the towers are filled with salt. When the salt gets hot enough it turns to liquid and is pumped to a steam generator that turns a turbine that creates electricity.
all the mirrors on the ground pointing at the salt towers
It turns out that salt is the most efficient fluid to transport the sun's heat and that it can store heat really well.
This product is more predictable than water reserves, the supply is free and inexhaustible, and the environmental impact is essentially zero.
another view
It sounds like a really good thing. You can read the original article here.
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