Solar energy can increase a
country’s energy security through reliance on an indigenous, inexhaustible
resource, enhance sustainability, reduce pollution, lower the costs of
mitigating global warming, and keep fossil fuel prices lower. Traditionally, the energy is stored in tanks
with beds of packed rock but rock expands and contracts with changes in
temperature. The movement of rock,
called “thermal ratcheting”, stresses the walls of the storage tank and can
cause it to break. A new method to store
the energy consists of a quartzite-rock bed that is charged with hot air flow and
discharged by cold air counter-flow, essentially turning the storage into a
generator. This storage method
(essentially returning the energy the grid) benefits the solar industry through
significantly reduced energy storage costs which in turn benefits the country
and its people.
References:
Mertens, N., Alobaid, F.,
Frigge, L., Epple, B. Dynamic simulation
of integrated rock-bed thermocline storage for concentrated solar power. 110 (2014) 830-842. doi:10.1016/j.solener.2014.10.021
December 5, 2014
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