Solar Thermal Energy Storage
Contents
Basics
- Solar thermal is a great renewable form of energy
- Despite this it (along with Photovoltaic Solar) only works when the sun shines (ie not at night, and not during storms/sufficiently cloudy days)
- Thus storage is neccisary for more stable power
Research
Methods
- Saturated Water
- Molten Salt (or equivalent other substances)
- Heated Solid (Such as a metal cube with an insulating shroud, or heated concrete with a shroud)
- Heated liquid (Such as Oil)
- Phase Change Materials
- Pressurized Air
- Pressurized/Elevated Water
- Flywheel
- Conversion to Electricity, and Electric Storage
Industry Standards
Existing Open Source Designs
Minimum Viable Product
- Capable of storing x Joules of Energy
Basic Design
Heat Generator
- Either a Linear Solar Concentrator, a Parabolic Solar Concentrator, or an array of Open Source Heliostats
Heat Delivery
- Either by piping of the working fluid, or a heatpipe
Heat Storage
- Molten salt
- Concrete, high temperature with pipes through it
- Ruths storage system - or Steam accumulator - or saturated water
BOM
See Also
Useful Links
- Basic concept of steam accumulators - see p2. - [1]
- Dismisses steam accumulator as not having enough power for turbines. That's correct, but it would have sufficient power for smaller modern steam engines. [2]. Proposes molten salt and concrete blocks as more likely.
- Saturated water storage - or Ruths storage system - [3]
- PDF from 2008 (Useful Info, but needs to be checked that it is still current)
