# World's First Baseload (24/7) Solar Power Plant



## mightybooboo (Feb 10, 2004)

Around the clock solar power,salt 'battery' heat storage to make steam electricity...."It'll NEVER Work" :happy2:
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http://news.yahoo.com/worlds-first-...NlYwNNZWRpYVNlYXJjaFJlc3VsdHNJYlhIUg--;_ylv=3










Solar Salt Batteries

Gemasolar, which officially launched last month (May 2011), is a 19.9-MW plant with a 15-hour &#8216;battery&#8217;. ........Because it can store energy, this 19.9 MW generates the equivalent of a 50 MW solar power plant without storage...................

Gemasolar&#8217;s battery consists of two tanks of molten salt thermal energy storage that allows the solar plant to generate on-demand electricity: during the evening, during cloud cover or rain, or even days or weeks later. Molten salt energy storage (MSES) or &#8216;solar salt&#8217; batteries are thermal not chemistry-based batteries like Lithium-ion ...........

MSES uses a combination 60% potassium nitrate and 40% sodium nitrate which retains 99% of the heat for up to 24 hours. Another way to put this number: this battery loses just 1% of the heat energy per day.(1)..........

Torresol&#8217;s Arias expects *Gemasolar to produce electricity about 6,400 hours per year - a capacity factor of 75%. * For comparison, the *Hoover Dam has a capacity factor of just about 23% while China&#8217;s Three Gorges hydro-electric power plant has a capacity factor of about 50%*.(3) According to a 2003 study by Clemson University Prof Michael Maloney in 2003 the capacity factor of *nuclear reactors in Japan, France, and the US were in the 65% to 72% range and the worldwide load factor was 69.4 percent.*(4)...........


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## swampyoaks (Jan 6, 2008)

Very interesting! Thanks for posting the link.


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## Windy in Kansas (Jun 16, 2002)

Sounds great. Eyes play tricks on us. I first read the title as baseboard solar and was sure scratching my head for a bit.


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