New Materials Could Make Concentrated Solar Power Cheaper Than Battery Storage

Sunlight can do lots of useful things. It can make plants grow. It can allow solar panels to make electricity. And it can be used to heat stuff up to extremely high temperatures. That last one is what makes concentrated solar power possible. According to a report in Science Daily, “Concentrated solar power plants convert solar energy into electricity by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a lot of light onto a small area, which generates heat that is transferred to a molten salt. Heat from the molten salt is then transferred to a “working” fluid, supercritical carbon dioxide, that expands and works to spin a turbine for generating electricity.”...