Harvesting the sun

The solar power plant in south Spain is a perfect location for research on how to collect and store the solar energy and test new technologies, with the 12hrs/day sun exposure.

The company is trying to solve one of the most important problem - storing the sun’s energy.

The parabolic shaped panels, capture the sun and reflect the heat onto the tube running across the panels. The tube is filled with oil, that gets very hot and then is transferred to the central block, releasing steam. But what is more interesting than the way the energy is collected, is the way it is stored. Part of the oil is used to give the heat to molten salts, and these salts store the heat, which is released later.

The basic explanation is that the company came up with the salt based battery to store the solar energy collected during the day, and release it closer to night-time, when the peak of energy consumption happens.

Another technology used is also involving the salt, but in liquid form, running through a tower, which receives the heat from the panels. The salt is then stored in the huge container until used later on.