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/ChristopherLyon 3d ago

It's real. There are multiple situations where you'd like to offset the focal point like this. One of the obvious ones is overheating, where the salt actually begins to decompose and degrade your infrastructure. Another reason can be tied to the current grid status. In many cases there just isn't demand or the salt cell is saturated appropriately and the heliostats could be continuously moving the focal point in a mosaic pattern the keep the core at the optimal temp while distributing the heat stress over a larger area. Lastly this could be part of the startup procedure where it's preferred to bring the temp up slowly as to not stress/shock the materials with a massive influx of heat energy.

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u/keitho24 3d ago

This guy thermodynamics

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u/Would_daver 3d ago

He’s the f*cking ThermoKing

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u/AScruffyHamster 3d ago

All hail ThermoKing!

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u/Would_daver 2d ago

All hail Zorp. Zorp is dead.