Anybody who has done any solar concentrator design knows that you’re big design is: number one, it’s have to focus, number two, it have to focus when the wind blows, and it can get blown down. It is like with saving heat with UPVC doors and UPVC Windows.
The wind loads turn out to be one of the main drivers in the design of troughs, towers, trough heliostats and dishes. Solar Two was the first molten salt power tower. It was really just an experiment. It wasn’t a commercial system.
It operated for about three years. I demonstrated the efficiency of this two-tank thermal storage approach using a mixture of sodium potassium nitrate salts, which is fertilizer. It also demonstrated an external efficiency of 88%. The way it operated is that you have a cold tank of salt. This salt is always in theliquid phase.What happens is, you heat it up initially and melt it. It melts at about 220C.