24-Hour Solar Power Plant Claims World First

The world’s first molten salts-based 24-hour solar power plant has been opened on the island of Sicily.

Incorporating solar thermal technologies, the plant has a 5MW capacity and uses the molten salts to store solar energy up.

Named Archimede, the site is positioned within the largest petrochemical site in Europe, and it came about through a collaboration between utility firm Enel and Italian energy technologies agency ENEA.

Concentrated Solar Power Plant

Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) as employed at the site is already being exploited in several other areas including Spain and the US. Employing synthetic oils, the Spanish and US sites capture solar energy by using mirrors to direct it onto water facilities.

Initially, CSP technologies could only operate in direct sunlight, but the introduction of molten salts as a vessel for storage helped overcome this issue. Archimede, though, uses molten salts to both collect solar energy and to store it: a global first.

24 Hour Solar Power

According to Archimede Solar Energy, the 24 hour solar power site reduces CO2 emissions by approximately 3,250 tonnes, and saves 2,100 tonnes of oil from being used. The array of mirrors cover an area of roughly 30,000 square metres and they direct sunlight onto a pipe containing the molten salts that’s over five thousand metres in length.

Similar molten salt-based solar energy technologies are employed at Spain’s Andasol Solar Power Station, which opened in 2009. This has a 50MW capacity and stores solar heat in a molten salts mixture comprised of sodium nitrate (which makes up 60 per cent) and potassium nitrate (40 per cent).

A study carried out in May 2009 by international researchers including members of the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association and Greenpeace suggested that CSP could potentially provide 25 per cent of global electricity by the middle of the century.

As covered by Enviro News, the Concentrated Solar Power report highlighted the employment opportunities this growth could open up, alongside the CO2 emissions reductions that would result.