美国能源部正在开发通过存储的方式来集中太阳能发电的项目,通过每天运作18个小时来充分发挥太阳能发电的潜力.
美国能源部周五表示,它已提供6200万美元给13家公司来进行设备和原料的测试,像融盐,就可以增加太阳能发电的存储力,通过热能来发电.
通过太阳的热量产生蒸汽来驱动涡轮机转动，这使得太阳能发电又进入了一个新时代，因为我们可以在沙漠中建立大规模的电厂了。增加存储力可以延长工厂向电网输电的时间，而相对于那些化石燃料又潜在地提高了太阳能的经济效益。
美国能源部的目标是利用集中太阳能发电来增加产能，进而来保证用电高峰期的需求。
Abengoa Solar、eSolar、和Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne三家公司都收到了超过1000万美元的资金来进行熔融盐技术的研究。
其它10个公司也收到了从210万到450万美元不等的资金赞助，这项可行性研究的最终目标是创造一个集中太阳能发电的原型来保证用电高峰期电力的平稳供给。
不同的存储材料，如加热固体和硫磺，都将被用来测试，同样，这项研究也致力于如何降低集中太阳能发电的成本，如何开发更低成本的生产技术。
The Department of Energy is funding a series of projects that marry concentrating solar power with storage, which offers the potential of solar power plants that operate 18 hours a day.
The DOE said Friday that it has made $62 million available to 13 companies to test equipment and materials, such as molten salts, to add storage to solar power systems that use heat to produce electricity.
An Abengoa Solartower in Europe.
(Credit: Abengoa)Concentrating solar power, in which the sun's heat creates steam to drive an electricity turbine, is seeing a renaissance because it can be used for large-scale power plants in deserts. Adding storage can extend the time these plants supply electricity to the grid and can potentially improve the economics of solar versus fossil fuels.
The DOE's target is to extend the output of concentrating solar power systems to 18 hours, covering the peak times of electricity usage.
The top three recipients are Abengoa Solar, eSolar, and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, each of which received more than $10 million for molten-salt research.
Abengoa Solar is already operating a solar storage facility and will test a solar tower that operates at a higher temperature, which could improve the overall output for a given land area. Solar tower designs use heliostats, or mirrors that track the sun, to reflect light onto a tower to heat a liquid.
eSolar's project will seek to build components for smaller, distributed solar towers to heat molten salt. It will also test an electricity generator that operates using molten salt.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, which developed the molten-salt solar storage technology now being used by start-up SolarReserve, will test different materials and a more efficient power-conversion cycle.
The other 10 projects, which received funds ranging from $2.1 million to $4.5 million, are "feasibility studies" with the goal of creating prototypes for concentrating solar power products that can generate baseload power, or a steady supply at times of high demand.
Different storage materials, such as heated solids and sulfur, will be tested. Also, the research is aimed at lowering the cost of concentrating solar power with low-cost production techniques or alternative components.
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