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Solar tower generates electricity from molten salt, even when it’s dark

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Solar tower generates electricity from molten salt, even when it’s dark

By on Jul 15, 2016Share

It’s a bird (igniting in mid-air), it’s a (solar-powered) plane, it’s a new innovation in the world’s solar power repertoire: The Crescent Dunes solar energy plant, the world’s first utility-scale facility that stores solar power in molten salt, can supply electricity even when the sun don’t shine. This super-plant can even supply 10 hours of it, enough to power 75,000 homes.

Located deep in the Nevada desert, a 600-foot tower shimmers in the intense rays of sunlight reflected off more than 10,000 giant mirrors. The mirrors concentrate heat on the giant load of sodium and potassium nitrates that are sent to the top of the tower. These salts have extremely high melting points, and can reach temperatures of more than 500 degrees Celsius. Their heat is channeled towards boiling water to produce steam, which spins turbines and generates electricity when needed. When not needed, the salt is stored in insulated tanks on the ground.

Other companies have also harnessed the hidden power of hot salt. But their method heats the salt indirectly, by first heating other fluids such as thermal oil. The 110-megawatt Crescent Dunes plant manages to do it more efficiently by heating its salts directly. Scientific American elaborates:

The benefit of using molten salt as both the energy collector that creates steam and the energy storage mechanism, however, is that it eliminates the need for expensive heat exchangers to go between different fluids… Plus, the molten salt medium is cheaper, more environment-friendly, nontoxic and nonflammable compared with oil.

Developed by SolarReserve, a California-based renewable energy firm, the zero-emissions Crescent Dunes hooked up with the electrical grid in late 2015, and has ramped up its commercial operations ever since.

Molten salt technology is not new, but it does look promising. There are plans for a second plant in South Africa later this year. Here’s hoping this Superman of our times doesn’t run into too much of its special kind of Kryptonite — tortoises.

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Solar tower generates electricity from molten salt, even when it’s dark

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Researchers Aim to Put Carbon Dioxide Back to Work

Scientists are working on ways to recycle and reuse carbon dioxide, rather than storing it underground, to fight climate change. Visit site –  Researchers Aim to Put Carbon Dioxide Back to Work ; ; ;

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Researchers Aim to Put Carbon Dioxide Back to Work

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Trilobites: Measuring the Planet’s Health in Vibrant Shades of Green

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Trilobites: Measuring the Planet’s Health in Vibrant Shades of Green

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Op-Ed Contributors: T-Shirt Weather in the Arctic

As the planet warms, we need new approaches to identify which species and ecosystems are most at risk. See original:   Op-Ed Contributors: T-Shirt Weather in the Arctic ; ; ;

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Op-Ed Contributors: T-Shirt Weather in the Arctic

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Your plane’s ETA is wrong, and it’s the climate’s fault

Your plane’s ETA is wrong, and it’s the climate’s fault

By on 13 Jul 2015commentsShare

To most people, hopping on a plane from Hawaii to the East Coast and getting in way earlier than expected is just a stroke of luck — little more than an excuse for a self-congratulatory coffee from one of the 200 Starbucks lining the airport terminal. But to Hannah Barkley, a PhD student in oceanography at MIT who is about to put you to shame, it’s a scientific phenomenon worth investigating.

Barkley enjoyed one of these lucky trips on her way back from doing field work in Hawaii not too long ago. Back on campus, she asked Kris Karnauskas, a researcher in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Geology and Geophysics Department, why her flight was so off, and the two subsequently got lost in decades worth of wind speed data and flight times between Honolulu and major West Coast cities. Long story short: There’s a strong link between those lucky flights and fluctuations in climate.

In a paper published today in Nature Climate Change, Karnauskas, Barkley, and two of their colleagues report that about 88 percent of the variability in domestic flight times is linked to variability in atmospheric circulation. This is largely thanks to a combination of El Niño events — those annoyingly irregular bouts of high Pacific Ocean temperatures — and the so-called Arctic Oscillations — winds that circulate the North Pole, periodically confining the cold arctic air to the pole or letting it escape down to the mid-latitudes.

As the climate changes, both of these atmospheric factors will likely change, meaning the average length of a flight could change, too — which, in turn, could have a real impact on climate change. (Phew, that’s a lotta “change.”) Here’re the numbers from a press release:

According to the study, there are approximately 30,000 commercial flights per day in the U.S. If the total round–trip flying time changed by an average of one minute, the amount of time commercial jets would spend in the air would change by approximately 300,000 hours per year. This translates to approximately 1 billion gallons of jet fuel, which is approximately $3 billion in fuel cost, and 10 billion kilograms of CO2 emitted, per year.

“We already know that as you add CO2 to the atmosphere and the global mean temperature rises, the wind circulation changes as well—and in less obvious ways,” says Karnauskas.

Depending on whether that change is an increase or a decrease in average flight times, this could be good news or bad news for the rest of us, climactically speaking. Karnauskas eventually wants to look at all global flights, according to the press release. In the mean time, perhaps domestic airlines should take note:

In reflecting on the findings of this project and the simple question Barkley had initially asked, Karnauskas says one of the biggest surprises is that the airline industry doesn’t seem to be aware of the flight time patterns beyond the day-to-day.

“The airline industry keeps a close eye on the day-to-day weather patterns, but they don’t seem to be addressing cycles occurring over a year or longer,” he says. “They never say, ‘Dear customer, there’s an El Niño brewing, so we’ve lengthened your estimated flight duration by 30 minutes.’ I’ve never seen that.”

Maybe you haven’t noticed, Karnauskas, but we humans aren’t the best at planning for — or even acknowledging — climate variability.

Source:
Air Travel and Climate: A Potential New Feedback?

, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

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Your plane’s ETA is wrong, and it’s the climate’s fault

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Here’s how to fight climate change, alleviate poverty, and increase resilience too.

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How ‘Solution Aversion’ and Global Warming Prescriptions Polarize the Climate Debate

A tendency of climate campaigners to bundle science and preferred solutions runs up against “solution aversion,” a study finds Source: How ‘Solution Aversion’ and Global Warming Prescriptions Polarize the Climate Debate

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How ‘Solution Aversion’ and Global Warming Prescriptions Polarize the Climate Debate

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A look at the gender factor in assessing the Anthropocene — the age of “man.” View this article: Dot Earth Blog: Never Mind the Anthropocene – Beware the ‘Manthropocene’

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Dot Earth Blog: Never Mind the Anthropocene – Beware the ‘Manthropocene’

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Never Mind the Anthropocene – Beware the ‘Manthropocene’

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Texas Plant to Capture, and Then Reuse, Carbon

Skyonic Corporation of Austin plans to open a $125 million factory near San Antonio next week that will make industrial chemicals. See original: Texas Plant to Capture, and Then Reuse, Carbon

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Texas Plant to Capture, and Then Reuse, Carbon

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