MIT researchers develop 24-hour solar with salt

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have designed a backup system that would allow solar panels to deliver power at night and on cloudy days.

According to the MIT news office, a team led by Alexander Slocum designed a system in which concentrated sunlight entering a tank would heat salt. Then water circulating around the tank would turn to steam, driving a turbine when power was needed. The approach, like other salt-based concepts, calls for an array of mirrors to focus the sunlight, but differs in that it uses a lower-cost, ground-based tank rather than the towers used in other designs. The plan is detailed in a paper published in the journal Solar Energy.

While exact costs are difficult to estimate at this early stage of research, an analysis using standard software developed by the U.S. Department of Energy suggests costs between seven and 33 cents per kilowatt-hour. At the lower end, that rate could be competitive with conventional power sources.

From Mass High Tech.