Molten Salt Heat Storage Batteries: Could They End the Renewable Energy Obsession?

By Donald Larson, Nuclear Engineer

“Progress is born of doubt and inquiry.” – Robert G. Ingersoll

The Beauty of the Natrium Reactor

When I first reviewed the Natrium reactor and its molten salt heat storage (MSHS) system, I was struck by its elegance. Not just the nuclear reactor itself—which I already believe is the best power source humanity has ever devised—but the way Natrium integrates a molten salt battery to smooth out power delivery.

It got me thinking… could molten salt heat storage be the death knell for wind and solar?

Can We Make the Grid Less Complex and More Efficient?

Can we make molten salt heat storage batteries that will make the energy grid less complex and more efficient?

It appears that we can. Imagine this: instead of ramping a dispatchable baseload plant up and down all day—high output during peak hours, low output at night—we simply run it flat out at maximum efficiency 24/7. The excess energy we produce at night gets stored in MSHS batteries as heat.

Then, when the grid needs peaking power, we release that stored heat to make steam and spin turbines—eliminating the need for expensive, inefficient gas peaker plants.

Why Would We Ever Consider Wind and Solar Again?

Why would we ever consider putting wind and solar on the grid if we can do that?

With MSHS batteries, couldn’t baseload plants become so efficient and the grid so simple that wind and solar start to look… well… kind of silly?

Adapting MSHS Beyond Nuclear

My mind wandered further: if MSHS batteries can be adapted to nuclear, could they be adapted to combined cycle gas turbines?

In a traditional combined cycle setup, a jet engine’s exhaust is piped directly to a steam turbine. But what if instead we fired that exhaust into a molten salt battery, capturing and storing the heat? Then, instead of producing steam continuously, we could release it on demand—instantly meeting variable power needs.

It sounds possible. Maybe even practical. Maybe right around the corner.

One Plant to Rule Them All?

Could we have a single facility providing all our power—baseload and peaking—without wind, solar, or the complexity of today’s grid? Could we open a molten salt research facility at Ohio State University to accelerate this work?

Who knows, but it might be in our best interest to find out.

Best of the Above — Not All of the Above

Natural gas and nuclear are the “Best of the Above” technologies if paired with MSHS. Do we really need more diversity than that?

I can’t imagine it. With these two, we could very well be the cheapest electricity market in the nation. Add “Turning Point” technologies—molten salt reactors co-located with plasma gasification—and we could solve environmental problems while creating multiple revenue streams from advanced nuclear.

Energy Too Cheap to Meter?

Think about it: plasma gasify coal, municipal solid waste, and sewage, turning them into clean liquid fuels. Produce reliable electricity with nuclear that consumes present day nuclear waste and gas, store excess in molten salt, and sell the byproducts.

The old dream of “energy too cheap to meter” might finally be within reach—not with more complexity, but with less.