On August 26, the heat storage demonstration system using molten salt, designed, developed and installed by Bluestar (Beijing) Chemical Machinery Co., Ltd. (BCMC), was successfully applied to the 10MW concentrated solar power (CSP) project (molten salt) of Qinghai Supcon Solar (Delingha), the first commercialized CSP project in China. The application of the system filled in the blanks of commercial heat storage equipment using molten salt in China and marked that China had entered the age of molten salt age for thermal energy storage of CSP.
The CSP system generates solar power by using parabolic arrays or dish-shaped mirrors to concentrate a large area of sunlight, or solar thermal energy, onto a small area. Electricity is generated when the concentrated light is converted into heat which drives a traditional turbo-generator. The molten salt storage system stores surplus solar energy in the daylight in the form of molten salt thermal energy so as to continue to generate electricity on cloudy, rainy days or in nighttime without sunlight. The molten salt heat storage system designed by BCMC is the first of its kind in China. It consists of a high-temperature molten salt storage tank, a low-temperature molten salt storage tank, a preheating system, and high-temperature corrosion resistant valves, granted four national invention patents. It breaks the technological bottleneck to solar heat storage for electricity generation and foreign technological monopoly in this regard and is a proprietary technology of China.
According to the exposure draft of the 13th five-year plan for the new energy industry, by the end of 2020, China's total installed capacity for CSP is expected to hit 10 million KW, and a batch of CSP stations will be promoted as demonstration projects. Using molten salt as the heat transmission and storage medium for the CSP system can enable CSP stations to efficiently absorb thermal energy and convert it into stable, adjustable electricity at a low cost. The molten salt storage system can also be used for wind power generation, to generate electricity out of cheap, surplus nighttime wind power and supply it during peak hours. Thus the molten salt storage system designed and developed by BCMC has a promising future and vast market space for growth.