# Steam pipes through brine pools to generate electricity **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 19, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-pipes-through-brine-pools-to-generate-electricity/322368 "2005-09-19T15:49:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-pipes-through-brine-pools-to-generate-electricity/322368/1 "2005-09-19T15:49:59Z")
I read about this somewhere, but I don’t remember the details or the name. I want to learn more because it sounds cool. Here’s what I remember. 1. Go somewhere hot (I think the work I read about was done in Israel.) 2. Make a big pool of brine outside. This raises the boiling point of the water. 3. Run pipes through the pools to a turbine and back (maybe via a condensing/cooling thingy too.) The bottom of the pools get really hot from the sun; it’s hot enough to boil the water in the pipes. My question is this: what the heck is this called? I want to learn more about it, such as whether it actually works or not, but my feeble google attempts failed. Any other information about this is also appreciated, but I mostly just want a jumpstart so that I can read some more about this. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-pipes-through-brine-pools-to-generate-electricity/322368/2 "2005-09-19T15:58:16Z")
Why use the brine at all? Why not just focus the sun right on the pipes? There are already some solar projects that work in this fashion. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-pipes-through-brine-pools-to-generate-electricity/322368/3 "2005-09-19T16:04:49Z")
Is [this what your were talking about?](http://www.teriin.org/case/bhuj.htm) The idea being that since the salt increases with depth the heat will “migrate” down to the bottom of the pond and hod the thermal energy longer than your garden variety water pond. I’m not sure about that. You could then use the difference in temperatures between the bottom of the brine pool and elsewhere to drive a generator. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2005, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-pipes-through-brine-pools-to-generate-electricity/322368/4 "2005-09-19T16:30:48Z")
> [@Grey](#): > > Is [this what your were talking about?](http://www.teriin.org/case/bhuj.htm) They say: > [@](#): > > The useful thermal energy is then withdrawn from the solar pond in the form of hot brine and is used as industrial process heat. So no, I don’t think this was it. I’m pretty sure they had steam pipes. Granted I may have just misread whatever that old article was that I remember. > [@friedo](#): > > Why use the brine at all? Why not just focus the sun right on the pipes? There are already some solar projects that work in this fashion. I’m not sure which would be cheaper. With the pools you have the heat capacity of the water to your advantage. If the sun goes behind the clouds it’ll still be hot for a while. Do you have a link to a large setup that uses this method? It sounds interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Helixtwice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Helixtwice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Helixtwice)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-pipes-through-brine-pools-to-generate-electricity/322368/5 "2012-10-08T15:31:24Z")
> **[Solar pond](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_pond)** > > A solar pond is a pool of saltwater which collects and stores solar thermal energy. The saltwater naturally forms a vertical salinity gradient also known as a "halocline", in which low-salinity water floats on top of high-salinity water. The layers of salt solutions increase in concentration (and therefore density) with depth. Below a certain depth, the solution has a uniformly high salt concentration. > When the sun's rays contact the bottom of a shallow pool, they heat the water adjacent to t... This explains all about it. The brine basically splits in three layers - the bottom one with most of the salt, which being opaque, absorbs most of the heat, which conducts to the pipe.