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by mattgibson 2327 days ago
Solar power towers can be built with molten salt heat stores, which continue to power the turbines during the night, so they do work after dusk now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_power_tower

1 comments

The thermal part of these is essentially the same cost as a coal plant — the only difference is that you're boiling the water with molten salt instead of burning coal — so they're having a really hard time competing with modern photovoltaic. It's true that they're a zero-carbon option for energy storage, but batteries are a more likely option.