SolarReserve
Alice Bazyar
October 17, 2018
Solar and Wind Energy May Be Nice, But How Can We Store It?
Solar energy is becoming more common as the cost is getting lesser and as its spreading around the world more. But the only issue is that the sun wouldn’t be out all day as seasons and hours change; that wouldn’t be a huge issue to SolarReserve.
SolarReserve is a company who built a large Solar plant in the Nevada Desert that store energy from the sun up to 10 hours, even after sundown. This can be seen from miles away as it is 640-foot tall and it includes 10,347 mirrors. The heliostats are arranged in a circle which stretches up to 1.75 miles across. The power is mostly taken from the top of the tower. "This is really the first utility-size project of this type in the world," says SolarReserve CEO Kevin Smith.
The plants ability to store the energy is called molten salt.; you can’t see the salt it’s contained in a system of pipes and insulated storage tanks. The molten salt must stay at least be above 450 degrees Fahrenheit to stay in a liquid form. The salt is sent up to the top of the tower to stay heated, usually when it gets down though, it’s about 1,050 degrees. The salt is used to create steam for it to power the generator which produces electricity for up to 10 hours after sundown; its flexibility is very important to the local utility.
When capacity is full, the plant generates enough energy for 75,000 Nevada homes. But in all, there are some problems.
One problem that occurred last year was when a bird flew by into the heat that was coming from the mirror and completely incinerated; this problem though was solved as the company changed the view of the mirrors from the birds that flew by, but another issue is cost. The NV energy is buying all the energy coming from SolarReserve for the next 25 years at 13-5 cents per kilowatt-hour; that's much more than the same power would cost from a natural gas plant.
Overall, SolarReserve is making a great change into the renewable energy sources as it is making people easier for them to produce energy safely and make it not as much as expensive as it is now.
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