While most countries are quietly ignoring thermal storage, China seems to be plowing its own furrow, and continues to toy with thermal technologies, in particular molten salt. Most molten-salt thermal storage in the west has been powered by concentrated solar power (CSP) projects – 50 MW to 100 MW mirror arrays and until recently China also did this, but now is building dozens alongside GW-scale photovoltaic capacity in its northern deserts. Last week something very different was commissioned – a small molten-salt thermal energy storage unit to be powered by excess wind and photovoltaic electricity. This energy storage unit, a $28 million, occupying ten acres, was built in Zhejiang Province, which is south of Shanghai and is completely unsuited for…