Solar Collectors using Molten Salt

Bhima

Tue Jan 15 09:44:38 -0800 2008

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Checkout that graphic from Sandia Labs(?) that Guy posted a few weeks ago.

In the US over 1/2 of all energy is consumed moving energy around.

That tells me if you could generate the power locally it could be substantially more expensive and you'd still be better off.

Solar Collectors using Molten Salt

AB3A

Tue Jan 15 11:27:31 -0800 2008

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Granted, you'd be better off, but you'd still have problems with getting the energy from places where it is common (arid desert) to where it is not (wet cool places).  Are there other liquids or gasses that might have more energy capacity than a molten salt? 

 

Solar Collectors using Molten Salt

rubycodez

Tue Jan 15 11:55:03 -0800 2008

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transporting energy as heated solid trying to compete with the 95%+ of a good transmission line?  don't think you can do it.

remember you're then going to be opening up and putting *cold* salt back into what was previously a closed & insulated system.  not to mention opening up the generating end to insert hot salt and remove the cooler....that wastes energy.

Move the power around? Uh, batteries!

elfy

Tue Jan 15 12:48:05 -0800 2008

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Yes, the idea is simple but what I am thinking of is more like what Heinlein called a 'Shipstone'; something that can hold a lot of charge.

We need something on the scale of the NASA Apollo project, but just for batteries. Maybe a dozen years of research and just throwing money at the problem and a few (zillion) breakthroughs...maybe that would do it.

Then folks can make power with this (solar + salt) system, charge up big honkin' batteries there and take them to market on the handy dandy electric truck. I do like the solar tower idea very much, and wonder if that can also desalinate water.  I had just shown a friend a link to one of these tower installations.

This is all my big 'what if' but if we had money in the national treasury, maybe we could do this.  As it is, universities and small nanotech firms will figure all this out and make a mint off it.  And of course I have not even considered any sort of impact from making giant batteries from what tech we have today...I'm just wishing for that Shipstone..

Move the power around? Uh, batteries!

AB3A

Tue Jan 15 13:12:31 -0800 2008

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The Manhattan project had an explicit goal which was thought to be theoretically possible.  In other words, it was really a problem of engineering, with a few guiding discoveries in science.  The problem with a blanket battery technology research project is that we don't have a central theoretical basis for this research. 

I would feel better if we decided to re-engineer the breeder reactor.  A Manhattan project to build a functional breeder reactor would be a wise expenditure.  It is theoretically possible.  It's been tried before several times and it has always had less than ideal results.  A full theoretical review with some research by scientists for better coolant materials might actually work in a case like this. 

Just a thought...

Pebble bed reactor?

elfy

Tue Jan 15 17:43:23 -0800 2008

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I thought that was the name of it; a new design that uses fuel up from small grains and then allows them to be removed from the bottom.  Sorta cool...but I bet that is one complex machine, since it has to withstand such harsh conditions.

Didn't Tesla do a lot of research into wireless transmission of power?

And with a power plant, you still have that problem of transmission lines, I wonder if the future of power is not only small wind/tidal/solar/anything plants all over, but lots of home installations too.  If we work on cutting waste bit by bit, it will really start to add up and the savings will be enormous.

I think at some point someone will really put their foot down and come up with a fantastic revision of the battery, but it could be 1000 years from now.