Solar energy is not a new technology. Scientists, engineers, and businesses have been toying with it for some time now. The only problem was storing the energy as electrical storage technology did not keep pace with the ability to collect the sun’s energy. Electrical storage systems were too costly, inefficient, environmentally unsafe, or a combination of all three.

Thermal storage systems, on the other hand, are sophisticated, mature, and inexpensive technologies. (Because people want to stay warm during winter months and because they want to drink hot/warm liquids on cold days, much thought has been put into storing heat.) A few businesses are leveraging these thermal storage technologies to deliver electricity. Instead of storing electrical current from solar energy, they are storing the heat for later use. Using Sodium Sulfate, a salt, solar power companies are storing heat from the sun’s rays to generate electricity as needed (on demand). A great graphic from the New York Times illustrates how this process works after the jump.

View the graphic from the New York Times that illustrates how thermal storage systems work. Perhaps, the greatest advantages of approaching solar energy in this method is that insulation and transmission (salt) materials are very inexpensive, the salt used is highly efficient in storing heat, and electricity can be generated when there is no sunlight. And, it is these efficiencies that will bring solar power to the masses. This is already the case in Spain.

There are several companies who are rushing to bring this technology to the States: Ausra, SolarReserve, eSolar, and BrightSource. You can read more about this topic more on the web.

I personally get excited when I read about these advances in electricity generation and storage. I can imagine a future where fossil fuels account for only a minority fraction of the world’s electricity generation and I anxiously await it. Furthermore, I look forward to having uninterrupted access to a sustainable and inexpensive source of electricity.

Disclosure: At the time of the writing of this post, I have no financial relationships with any of the organizations mentioned.