The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) selected Solar Dynamics LLC, EPRI and Malta Inc. to develop a new design basis document intended to accelerate low-carbon energy applications that use nitrate salt energy storage.

The initiative will combine the organizations’ knowledge and experience to present technical recommendations for future energy projects using nitrate salt as a heat transport fluid and thermal storage medium.

Through the compilation of cutting-edge engineering practices and lessons learned from past projects, both successful and unsuccessful, this design basis document is intended to codify industry consensus and establish guidelines to assist future developers in planning reliable, efficient, and cost-effective designs.

This new design basis document could advance the next generation of nitrate salt thermal storage systems, which have applications in concentrated solar power, long-duration energy storage and nuclear energy.

“The team is very excited by this award and the key role that it can play in accelerating molten salt systems,” said Hank Price, Managing Director of Solar Dynamics. “EPRI’s vast subject knowledge and stellar reputation, coupled with Malta’s global expertise in energy storage, ensures that this document will represent the current state of the art in technical and practical expertise in salt systems.”

“Collaborating with Solar Dynamics and Malta to assemble the most effective benchmarks for molten salt energy storage and concentrated solar plants represents an opportunity to build awareness of this technology and help advance an entire class of energy systems,” said Michael Caravaggio, Director of Research and Development, EPRI.

“Malta is excited to be contributing knowledge gained from the development of our long-duration energy storage system to the advancement of the energy industry,» said Malta CEO Ramya Swaminathan. “We’re delighted to provide our expertise and promote molten salt storage as a solution to some of the world’s biggest energy challenges.”

The study is being led by molten salt expert Bruce Kelly and is scheduled to take 12 months. It involves direct interviews with plant operators, EPCs, and owners, and it will build upon the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s previous work on the subject.

“By standardizing these design lessons into ‘open source,’ best-practice instructions, we will accelerate our migration to more low-carbon energy systems and ultimately, reduce costs passed along to customers,” said Price.