European facility on Molten SALT technologies TO power and energy system applications

Solutions developed

The use of Molten Salts as heat transfer and storage media has been gathering research efforts and is regarded, by the industry, as the foregoing standard for new commercial plants.
Molten Salt (MS) research has been deployed along the past decade in Germany and Italy, alongside with the erection of dedicated Research Infrastructure (RI) enabling the study and experimental test of e.g. materials, components or O&M procedures suiting this innovative technological approach. With the recent commissioning of a full-fledged Molten Salt Solar system emulating a commercial MS-CSP Plant in Évora, Portugal has joined this research effort with a new outstanding RI in this field.

Main results

Thermal energy storage makes concentrated solar power available for use when the sun isn’t shining. The EU-funded SALTOpower project will advance using molten salt as energy storage by creating the reference European facility for testing such technologies. Working with other dedicated research infrastructure in Germany and Italy, the University of Evora in Portugal will increase understanding of materials, components and procedures. The project will create a common research strategy to test technologies based on molten salt for energy storage as well as dispatchable power production solutions for the integration of different renewable energy sources and power and gas grids.