The world’s largest solar tower and molten salt storage facility – part of the biggest solar and storage complex in the world – is going through its final testing in Morocco, and one of our regular readers was on hand to witness it.
IT Power’s Keith Lovegrove, one of Australia’s leading solar thermal experts, has been in Morocco for the SolarPaces conference, which focuses on solar concentrating systems under the auspices of the International Energy Authority.
He – among others – was given a guided, and by the looks of things sometimes not-so-guided, tour of the 150MW Noor 3 solar tower complex, which stands alongside two newly built parabolic trough installations, one of them also with storage.
Lovegrove, who along with co-authors ITK analyst David Leitch and others, has prepared a detailed report into dispatchable renewable electricity options for Australia, which is soon to be released by ARENA, says towers seem to beat parabolic troughs on cost of energy.
That’s because they can get a higher temperature difference between hot and cold salt tanks and that means they give more bang for your buck in the storage area.
But, he observed, a major thing to watch though is that there are several pilot systems now happening where troughs are directly heating salt and getting very close to tower type temperatures, that could tighten the competition considerably.
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