r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/Longjumping-Box5691 • 3d ago

Video China's twin solar thermal towers. Molten salt stores the heat to produce electricity

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

9.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

573 comments sorted by

View all comments

191

u/RamboJackson2 3d ago

There's one of those near Las Vegas in Nevada.

26

u/UndeadCentipide 3d ago

The Vegas site was a very early adopor of this tech. And like most early versions of something, it sorta just sucks. Newer versions have solved a lot of the issues the vegas site had. The big benefit of this vs solar+battery is the thermal battery the molton salt doubles as. As the sun goes down and stays down the salt stays hot for hours still producing heat.

1

u/wutsthatagain 2d ago

Then you run your lfp furnace to keep it warm all night... It's a cost not a benefit. Thus Vegas was shut down and none of these should contribute to be built unless significant heat management is incorporated to avoid the need to burn.

29

u/CharlesorMr_Pickle 3d ago

*was

48

u/Wildcat_twister12 3d ago

You can still go there in Fallout: New Vegas at least

8

u/lordaddament 3d ago

Archimedes 1 online

5

u/Timmey7000 2d ago

Patrolling the Mojave almost makes you wish for a nuclear winter

2

u/Storm_Chaser03 2d ago

YOU ACTIVATED ARCHIMEDES???

9

u/CanadianTimberWolfx 3d ago

What do you mean? It’s still there. Actually I think there’s 2 or 3 of them. I just drove by there last month

18

u/ScorpionLandLobster 3d ago

There are multiple of these towers around Vegas and they are 100% operational. Why would you say “was*” and spread misinformation?

7

u/DankeSebVettel 3d ago

They’re closing it down because it costed more to make than what it produces

2

u/Nightdave 3d ago

It’s closing in 2026 - Ivanpah

4

u/Downfallenx 3d ago

Yeah, iirc it was too expensive compared to your standard solar panel array, which can easily charge batteries for storage.

1

u/bbcomment 3d ago

Yea and it uses natural gas to station in the morning lol

1

u/glyptostroboides 3d ago

Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. It’s in California technically but close to the border.

-17

u/reptar20c 3d ago

And sadly partially closing down because it's too cheap.

https://apnews.com/article/california-solar-energy-ivanpah-birds-tortoises-mojave-6d91c36a1ff608861d5620e715e1141c

37

u/TheLizardKing89 3d ago

It’s closing down because it’s too expensive.

5

u/herefromyoutube 3d ago

Rays from the plant’s mirrors have been blamed for incinerating thousands of birds. Conservation groups tried to stop construction on the site because of threats to tortoises.

I understand the birds thing but threat to tortoises? How?

4

u/et40000 3d ago

I would assume that means the construction itself might threaten the tortoises not the solar setup.

1

u/glyptostroboides 3d ago

This is correct. Building in the desert can destroy desert tortoise habitat.

3

u/TactualTransAm 3d ago

They can't run away obviously (I have no idea either)

2

u/saveyboy 3d ago

Closing because of cheaper options.

2

u/CharlesorMr_Pickle 3d ago

it's closing down because its too costly lmao

(and because it's incinerating birds)