Everyone knows the sun creates energy — the bigger problem is how to keep this energy humming once the sun has gone down.
Molten salts seem to be the answer, according to this compelling read at Yale Environment 360. They salts store heat generated during the day by thousands of concentrated mirrors, releasing the energy at night to keep the lights on.
Some of the recent claims for solar thermal power have been stunning. Researchers at the German Aerospace Center have estimated that 16,000 square kilometers of solar thermal power plants in North Africa — paired with a new infrastructure of high-voltage, direct-current transmission lines — could provide enough electricity for all of Europe. And scientists have estimated that constructing solar thermal power plants on less than 1 percent of the world’s deserts — an area roughly the size of Austria — could meet the entire world’s energy needs.
The piece also points out that the cost of this power is relatively cheap — “13 cents per kilowatt hour, according to the U.S. National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This is only marginally more expensive than the average U.S. price for coal-generated electricity in 2008 of 11 cents per kilowatt hour.”
Solar thermal plants are going up in Spain, in the western U.S., even in Florida. Is this the power plant of the future?