AREVA commissions molten salt energy storage demonstration

AREVA has begun operations of its molten salt energy storage demonstration plant designed specifically for use with the group’s Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) technology. Funded partially by Department of Energy (DoE), this full scale project is being carried out at Sandia National Laboratories’* National Solar Thermal Test Facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Due to their significant collaboration, AREVA’s solar team and Sandia’s molten salt technology experts have developed an innovative approach to energy storage that combines the molten salt test loop (MSTL) with AREVA’s CLFR applications. The result is a reliable and competitive solution which optimises the benefits of CLFR technology by ensuring that the energy captured can be dispatched night or day through the use of molten salt storage.

AREVA’s CLFR design uses an array of mirrors to concentrate the sun’s energy on an elevated evacuated tube receiver to heat a working fluid, in this case molten salt. The system draws molten salt from a cold (290°C) tank, uses the heat from the mirrors to heat it to as high as 550°C, and passes that hot liquid to a separate tank for storage. When needed, the high-temperature molten salt passes through a heat exchanger to produce steam for electricity generation. The molten salt then returns to the cold tank and the process is repeated in a closed-loop system.

The successful test results demonstrate that the use of molten salt as a working fluid enables high temperature operations, reduces the volume of salt needed for storage, and removes the need for two sets of heat-exchangers in the system. These efficiencies decrease the overall cost and complexity of the system. As part of the project, AREVA will also study the optimization of Operation & Maintenance costs related to molten salt management in a real world environment.