Here's even some more good news for Advocates of Alternative and Renewable Energy:
May 12, 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
TERRAFORE, INC. TO EXPLORE NEWER THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE TECHNOLOGY TO MAXIMIZE SOLAR POWER EFFICIENCY
Awarded up to $1.4 million grant from the Department of Energy
RIVERSIDE, CA – Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) systems use arrays of mirrors to collect high temperature thermal energy from the sun. This energy is then used to generate steam and drive turbines and produce electricity. One of the advantages of CSP is the ability to store thermal energy so that electricity can be produced as necessary needed during off-peak solar collection times or cloudy days. In large CSP installations, the cost of storing some or all of the high temperature thermal energy collected is a significant determining factor for total plant cost and efficiency.
Riverside, CA based Terrafore, Inc. has been pioneering new research to develop more efficient and lower cost Thermal Energy Storage (TES) using inorganic molten salt mixtures.
[...]
Terrafore, will partner with Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas and University of California at Riverside, for this R&D project.
Finally!
"Thermal Energy Storage using inorganic molten salt mixtures"
Umm ... What took them so long?
I learned about the Phase-State-Change Energy effect -- way back in my 10th Grade Physics class, many, many years ago.
It's just Physics ... and it is an Energy Resource, that could end up "Trapping Sunlight in a Bottle"
... tucked away safely for that inevitable "rainy day" ...
Phase-State-Change Energy effect ? Huh? What's that?
Well the short answer is -- it's what makes us "feel cool" when sweat "evaporates".
What makes snow-falling days "feel warmer" that snow-thawing days.
The technical term for this is Latent Heat. You see it "takes energy" to make something to "change states".
To boil some Water -- you better have some Heat! A LOT of it.
Latent Heat
When a substance changes phase, that is it goes from either a solid to a liquid or liquid to gas, the energy, it requires energy to do so. [...]
Starting a point A, the substance is in its solid phase, heating it brings the temperature up to its melting point but the material is still a solid at point B. As it is heated further, the energy from the heat source goes into breaking the bonds holding the atoms in place. This takes place from B to C. At point C all of the solid phase has been transformed into the liquid phase. [...]
The energy required to change the phase of a substance is known as a latent heat. The word latent means hidden.
Latent means "Hidden".
Latent Energy means Hidden Energy, just waiting to be Leveraged.
The trick is -- with Latent Heat -- it depends on the direction it is happening
Solid ---> Liquid
Liquid ---> Solid
Energy is absorbed in one case, and THAT SAME ENERGY is given-off in the other case.
THE ENERGY MOVES BOTH WAYS -- with minimal loss, depending on the systems being used to supply the heat (or alternately to re-absorb, reacquire, that same heat, in the reverse direction).
In a phrase, Latent Heat IS Nature's built-in Energy Storage System!
Isn't Nature wonderful that way?
The Ten Types -- Heat Energy
fi.edu/guide
Latent heat is the energy given off or absorbed during a change of phase. Whenever a substance changes form a gas to a liquid or from a liguid to a solid this latent heat is given off.
[...]
Your body uses latent heat during the summer as it sweats. As the persperation evaporates, the vapor absorbs this latent heat of vaporization from your body, cooling it.
Imagine millions and millions of Ice Crystals forming, and then melting, and then re-forming again ...
like a perpetual, miniature Solid-Rain-Cycle, a forever circulating, forever exchanging their Molecular Energy conditions. First this way and then that way. Back and Forth. To and Fro.
Neither created or destroyed ... but Energy forever changing forms from one state to another. From one Energy type to another.
It's just Physics ... Latent Heat ... and it is an Energy Storage Resource, that could end up "Trapping Sunlight in a Bottle" ... tucked away safely for that inevitable "rainy day" ...
And Latent Heat is already being tapped in many techie (and non-techie) ways:
Latent Heat -- Phase Changes
physics.info
Heat absorbed or released as the result of a phase change is called latent heat. There is no temperature change during a phase change, thus there is no change in the kinetic energy of the particles in the material. The energy released comes from the potential energy stored in the bonds between the particles.
* exothermic (warming processes)
o condensation
+ warmer in the shower
+ steam radiators
o freezing
+ orange growers use ice to stop oranges from freezing
o deposition
+ snowy days are warmer than clear days in the winter
* endothermic (cooling processes)
o evaporation / boiling
+ sweat
+ alcohol is "cool"
o melting
+ melting ice in drinks
o sublimation
+ cooling with dry ice
And NOW some great Scientific Minds are turning their energies towards figuring how to best Leverage that reservior of Latent Heat, to Trap and Store another one of Nature's amazingly abundant resource -- Sunlight.
How to Use Solar Energy at Night
Molten salts can store the sun's heat during the day and provide power at night
By David Biello, Scientific American -- Feb 18, 2009
What do you do when the sun is not shining and at night?
The answer: store sunlight as heat energy for such a rainy day.
[...]
Because most salts only melt at high temperatures (table salt, for example, melts at around 1472 degrees Fahrenheit, or 800 degrees Celsius) and do not turn to vapor until they get considerably hotter -- they can be used to store a lot of the sun's energy as heat. Simply use the sunlight to heat up the salts and put those molten salts in proximity to water via a heat exchanger. Hot steam can then be made to turn turbines without losing too much of the original absorbed solar energy.
They have tried batteries but too much of the energy that goes in is not returned, and they tend to be too expensive, according to an analysis from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo. Compressing air or pumping water uphill are more promising, but the opportunities to do that are limited by the number of caverns and the availability of water and reservoirs.
Melting salts at temperatures above 435 degrees Fahrenheit (224 degrees Celsius), however, can deliver back as much as 93 percent of the energy, plus the salts are ubiquitous because of their application as fertilizers.
"There's a term called round-trip efficiency. Basically, it's a measure of how much electricity is produced if the thermal energy that's generated is first stored and then used compared to just directly taking the energy. That number is around 93 percent," explains NREL senior engineer Greg Glatzmaier. "[For] things like compressed air and mechanical type storage, there's more significant losses," an average of at least 20 percent over all the various technologies.
OK, that sounds good on paper -- but is anybody really working out the "nut and bolts" mechanical issues, related to creating that "93% round-trip efficiency" -- theoretically possible, assuming we can make those "ubiquitous salts" ... Melt?
Why yes there is. Remember my Intro "Press Release" -- here are some of the highlights from that US Company's pushing-the-envelope story:
Latent Heat Storage for Concentrating Solar Power
Heat Transfer and Latent Heat Storage in Inorganic Molten Salts for Concentrating Solar Thermal Power Plants
by Anoop Mathur
Terrafore, Inc, June 5, 2009
[pg 5]
Types of Thermal Storage
There are different ways to store thermal energy
-- sensible heat: in high temperature oils or low melting molten salt mixtures, dual media eg. rock and oil
-- phase change: Heat or Latent Heat when solid melts and freezes. Vaporization and boiling phase change is not practical
-- chemical energy: Heat of reaction in reversible chemical reactions, or heat of adsorption
[pg 7]
much larger
[pg 22]
Summary
Thermal Energy Storage in Phase Change Material can potentially result in
-- 30% reduction in amount of molten salt
-- 60% reduction in container size
-- 2% to 3% improvement in overall system efficiency
-- Flexibility to operate with different steam cycles
-- Flexibility to store energy when collection temperature less than top storage temperature
-- Net decrease in life cycle cost of energy by 6% to 9% / desorption of gases, hydration / dehydration
Terrafore -- About Us
Riverside, CA
With the proliferation of solar energy technologies and the variety of emerging choices, it is becoming increasingly important to make the informed investment decisions especially for large scale solar installations.
Terrafore, Inc., was incorporated in late 2007 as a consulting and technology development company in renewable energy and sustainable technologies to address these opportunities and offer world class consulting services.
We have assembled a team of consultants and advisors consisting of technology veterans with decades of experience to provide consulting services for large scale solar power generation systems.
We are also developing innovative technologies for high temperature thermal energy storage and distributed solar thermal systems.
Terrafore -- Technical Library
But will it ... Molten Salt, Thermal Energy Storage (TES) really work? Outside of a Laboratory? In the real World?
I don't know, maybe we should ask the forward-looking people of Spain (and their German Scientist advisers) ...
It seems they have a several years Head Start on us -- in leveraging and implementing this important "High-efficiency Round-trip Energy Re-cycling" process ...
Andasol 1: The largest solar power station officially inaugurated
German Aerospace Center, dlr.de -- 1 July 2009
On 1 July 2009 the solar-thermal power station Andasol 1, located in the Spanish province of Granada in Andalusia, was officially inaugurated. At the present time, Andasol 1 is the largest solar power station in the world. [...]
[Credit: Solar Millennium AG.]
[...]
There is also a heat accumulator located in the centre of this gigantic solar field. Here, two giant tanks, measuring 14 metres in height and 36 metres in diameter, are used to store surplus energy during the midday period using liquid salt. This salt is heated by solar power to temperatures of up to 390 degrees Celsius and this stored heat enables the power station to operate at full power (50 megawatts) for up 7.5 hours after the Sun has set -- a key requirement for the future use of solar power stations.
See that BIG Tank in the middle of the photo -- That's effectively your "Nite-time Solar Battery" -- storing all the Desert heat as Liquid Salt -- ready to give back that Heat, when it -- the Salt "re-freezes" at nite. Automatically. Like clockwork. (No nasty "Fuel Rods" either.)
Very Cool! Or very Hot, I should say.
Anyone got a Steam-powered Generator, they need to hook up?
So YES, in a word, it does work. Solar Energy CAN be Tapped, Trapped, and Stored, to be re-used in the dead of night. Just look to Spain for an example.
All that's missing, here in the USA, is the long-term Vision, of what's needed,
and some more Healthy R&D Grants, Business Loan Guarantees, and continued Tax Incentives, to spur customers to invest in, our common future.
and maybe a Media that will start treating our Energy Future,
as the serious problem that it, in reality, is. THAT would really help too.
Maybe if we ask our allies in Europe nicely enough ...
Maybe they'll lend us the blueprints to their ground-breaking Technology?
Pretty please? ... We'll use it wisely. We promise.
( PS. such "Technology Transfer" arrangements -- could save us a "boatload" of "reinventing the wheel" R&D Budgets ... something to think about in these "Austere Times" we find ourselves in. Afterall what are good allies for, anyway -- if not to help us out of a jam? )