A new concept for the global distribution of solar energy: energy carrying compounds

Abstract

A new concept for storage and superregional transport of solar energy from the earth's desert belt is proposed. The concept is based on solid alkaline earth metal compounds, showing an energy-rich and an energy-lean state which are used in an energy distribution cycle. The concept is evaluated with regard to overall solar-to-electricity efficiency and benchmarked by the overall efficiency of the DESERTEC concept. For a scenario assuming that the current share of electricity production from lignite coal in Germany is replaced by the here proposed concept, the CO₂ mitigation potential is calculated. The assessment shows that the proposed concept can compete with the benchmark and even shows high potential for optimization.