Solar power at night

One of the negative things often levelled against solar power is that it can only produce power when the sun shines, and thus cannot be operated as a base load power plant.

Not anymore.

Solar power at night is now officially here, and I am not talking about moon and starlight power! The first Concentrated Solar Power plant with molten salt storage has gone live. The molten salt is a type of battery that stores energy produced during the day as heat, and then this heat can be used at night to create electricity.

See:

http://www.solarthermalmagazine.com/2010/07/14/enel-inaugerates-molten-salt-thermal-energy-storage-system-for-archimede-solar-thermal-power-plant/

http://www.ice.gov.it/sedi/umbria/energia/angelantoni/Archimede%20Company%20Profile.pdf

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/22/first-molten-salt-solar-power

CSP with storage is the future of base-load power for the grid - but will South Africa, with the best sun in the world, be riding this sunbeam?

Frank