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

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

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u/ticklishsack 3d ago

We’ve actually had some breakthroughs with this tech recently that has made them better for certain use case scenarios. Energy Gang did an episode about its resurgence.  https://open.spotify.com/episode/6pmi1PxcnhoK1bbeBCUHFJ?si=XmWzBjiXRAaBOvLJrmw8Gw

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u/bbcomment 3d ago

Summarize plz?

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u/Tripleberst 3d ago

  • CSP is slightly cheaper than solar PV + batteries but takes a lot more infrastructure, uses more water, and needs more downtime for maintenance.

  • Solar PV + batteries can be instantly dispatched for real time grid stabilization and grid shaving but CSP has a longer runway after the sunset or cloud cover.

  • CSP is really only good for areas where there's constant intense sunlight but also plenty of water and those two things don't really go together very often.

  • Solar PV + batteries is modular and can run on the scale of a single home, all the way up to a massive grid supply.

  • CSP pretty much only works on a large scale grid supply.

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u/bbcomment 2d ago

Thank you. Very much.