SolarReserve plans development for most ambitious solar power plant yet

With approval of the Environmental Impact Review on its 200-megawatt, two-tower Saguache Solar Energy Project, SolarReserve hopes to soon get started on a new pair of solar power tower/molten salt storage facilities. In SolarReserve’s system, heliostats surrounding the tower direct the sun to a heat exchanger at the tower’s top. That 1,000-degree-Fahrenheit heat is transferred to a molten salt fluid flowing. After flowing through the fluid, the heat can then either flow to a water boiler to create steam to drive a turbine that generates electricity or to a storage tank, where it can be stored until there is a need for electricity. SolarReserve’s Smith insisted his company’s storage method is, “ ... less expensive, more efficient, more technically challenging, and technically superior.” It is, he said, “the world’s leading solution for solar energy storage.”