Sodium-Steel Heat Storage for Variable Energy Output from Nuclear and Solar Power Systems

摘要

The electricity market is changing with decreasing markets for base-load electricity and large swings in wholesale electricity prices. In traditional electricity systems based on fossil fuels, minimum electricity prices are determined by the marginal operating costs of the fossil plants-the cost of fossil fuels. With large-scale wind or solar deployment, the minimum price of electricity is near zero because the marginal cost of solar or wind production is near zero. This market change creates incentives for low-carbon nuclear and solar thermal power systems to match output with market demand for electricity using heat storage and auxiliary combustion systems for assured peak generating capacity.The challenge for sodium systems has been to find a heat storage technology that meets cost and safety requirements when storing heat at the gigawatt-hour scale. Heat storage using steel as the primary heat storage media with large swings in heat storage temperatures may meet cost goals for a competitive heat storage system.