Storing energy has become a greater problem than producing it and that is exactly the reason why solar energy production and storing has become a bit of a problem in the past few years. While in the last few years we have been able to produce large quantities of solar energy we have not been able to store it because of our lack of technology in that regards. This makes solar energy unreliable as you would not be left with power supply for the rainy or cloudy cold day.
The idea is to capture the sun’s heat. Heat, unlike electric current, is something that industry knows how to store cost-effectively. Solar thermal systems are built to gather heat from the sun, boil water into steam, spin a turbine and make power, as existing solar thermal power plants do; but not immediately. The heat would be stored for hours or even days, like water behind a dam. This makes sure that we can store the energy the times when it is a lot gloomier.
While many across the state of California are trying to incorporate the concept in to the present system, it still takes plenty of time and a lot of investment to actually make sure that this plan works on ground. This is a nice little concept and hopefully the technology of storing thermal energy will work to help spread solar power.
Comments
I am responding to the notion that storing energy is a new issue with solar.
Storing various forms of energy in a usable, safe, non-polluting, cost-effective and portable form is and has been the only problem with solar and all other forms of energy.
Oil is one of the few products that meets these criteria ... except for that one little ”non polluting” thing.
We have plenty of technologies to get solar energy, wind energy, geothermal, oceanic, biological, and (unfortunately) coal energy. We have a great deal of energy — way more than enough, and we know how to fetch it. It’s the retention and transport that tends to make most of these forms of energy a problem.
A few years back when fuel cells were all the rage, everyone was saying they are not the solution to our problems: where does the hydrogen to make the cells work come from? Fuel cells provide portable storage of energy — and that’s all they do.
Where we get the hydrogen is: all of the above sources, which are cheap and plentiful and can be used, in part, to ”manufacture” hydrogen.
Various other forms of storage are also being worked on.
The problem is in making these technologies cost-effective.
Tom
The point was that only in the last decade have we been able to make substantial Solar Energy in the quantity that it needs to be stored for the future use and hence the problem arises. Yes, the problem is nothing new and the economic factors do indeed play a major role in the spreading of alternate sources of energy. It is slow progress but we are getting there and with each passing day, hopefully that process will step up and be faster.