Molten Salt Storage for Power Generation

Abstract

Storage of electrical energy is a key technology for a future climate‐neutral energy supply with volatile photovoltaic and wind generation. Besides the well‐known technologies of pumped hydro, power‐to‐gas‐to‐power and batteries, the contribution of thermal energy storage is rather unknown. At the end of 2019 the worldwide power generation capacity from molten salt storage in concentrating solar power (CSP) plants was 21 GWhel. This article gives an overview of molten salt storage in CSP and new potential fields for decarbonization such as industrial processes, conventional power plants and electrical energy storage.

Ideal‐Typical Utility Infrastructure at Chemical Sites – Definition, Operation and Defossilization

“…The PtGtCHP overall efficiency value is only 37 %, while PtHtCHP has a high overall efficiency of 87.4 %. Further details and a discussion about hybrid configurations of PtHtCHP and PtGtCHP can be found in literature [4,22].…”

“…Energy Sankey diagrams of renewable electricity and process steam supply: Power‐to‐Heat (PtH) technology with direct steam generation and without storage (left), Power‐to‐Heat‐to‐Combined‐Heat‐and‐Power (PtHtCHP) with thermal energy storage (middle), and Power‐to‐Gas‐to‐Combined‐Heat‐and‐Power (PtGtCHP) with gas storage (right); partly redrawn from 4, 22.…”

Klimaschutz und nachhaltige Mobilität durch grünen Wasserstoff

“…Die Versorgungslücken müssen dann gefüllt werden durch Back‐up‐Energiesysteme wie Gaskraftwerke oder durch Stromimporte aus Ländern in Europa, die gerade nicht von diesen meteorologischen Bedingungen betroffen sind. Auch stationäre Stromspeicher in Form von Wärmespeichern auf Salzbasis sind in intensiver Erforschung 12, 13.…”

Parametric study of filler size and properties for a liquid-metal thermal energy storage

“…One example is the concentrating solar power technology, where large-scale thermal energy storage systems with molten salt already enable a 24/7 operation [1]. But also the implementation in conventional coal-fired or nuclear power plants is proposed with the aim of increasing the capacity factors and minimizing the number of start-ups [2,3,4].…”