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One of the most vital aspects to using solar thermal energy is finding and using the best solar thermal energy storage solutions. The good news is that latest solar thermal technologies are helping in beating some of the toughest challenges facing those that have an interest in using and storing solar thermal energy. When it comes to understanding what it takes to get solar thermal energy storage solutions it’s got to be claimed that these new technologies can help in storing solar thermal energy so this caught energy can be employed at night and even if it is raining outside.

Molten Salt

Countries like Spain and Australia and even the Southwestern regions in America are looking to use these new technologies to affect better and more effective solar thermal energy storage. One solution which has been revealed to be awfully effective and which is being utilized in Spain is to use molten salt as the best solar thermal energy storage medium. This molten salt can store the heat from the sun for many hours thus guaranteeing that even when the sun has gone down that there will continue to be acceptable solar thermal energy available to power turbines and so produce electricity even if there is not any sunlight available such as occurs at night.

A plant in the south of Spain called the Andasol one has just started operating ( in the month of Nov , 2008 ) and it is ready to, thanks to its unique methodology of influencing solar thermal energy storage, generate 50 MW of power which is acceptable quantity of electricity to power up between 50 and 60 thousand houses for a complete year.

It is believed that the next such solar thermal plant (to be called Andasol 2) will become online in the summer of 2009 and there are plans to construct Andasol 3 as well. You can imagine what the combined solar thermal energy storage of all these three plants will be and when they all begin working (as expected in the year 2011) then there should be enough electricity available from these plants to power up one hundred and fifty thousand households.

A common myth about using solar thermal electric energy is that it is electricity that is only going to be available during the daytime. However, this is a myth that has been propounded on misconceptions and ignorance rather than on hard facts. The simple fact is that with proper solar thermal energy storage it is possible to provide electricity even when there is no sun about.

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