Sunlight, mirrors still seen in Aussie future power mix

Bloomberg

An Australian energy startup says it has found a solution to the problem that has dogged some thermal solar technology projects, removing instability in the process of storing the generated electricity.
Vast Solar’s technology differs from rivals because it uses liquid sodium as a heat transfer agent, improving control of the sunlight bouncing off specialised mirrors, according to Chief Executive Officer Craig Wood. The mirrors focus the light on liquid sodium receivers placed on the top of a tower, with the sodium then used to transfer heat to molten salt storage tanks. Other projects typically also use molten salt as the transfer agent.
“Across the industry there has been a number of issues people have had with failures with heat exchanges and also with the hot salt tanks,” Wood said in an interview. “These failures have been caused to a greater or lesser extent by inadequate control of the heat transfer fluid temperature out of the solar receiver.” Vast Solar may help shore up confidence in the technology after rival SolarReserve Inc. failed to arrange financing for its A$650 million ($463 million) Aurora Solar
Energy project in South Australia.