Among the green power projects in the works, the molten salt technology to tap solar power is receiving wide attention.

The sun could be an efficient source of energy, but it is not all that reliable. It fluctuates, and it turns off at night, as you might know! A way out is to store the solar energy in the form of heat using molten salt.

An aerospace company, Hamilton Sundstra, created a venture called SolarReserve to try out the idea and is hoping to generate 500 megawatts of peak power, the size of a typical power plant.

"The molten salt holds its heat very efficiently and for long periods of time," said Dan Coulom a spokesman at Hamilton Sundstrand last year.

He also revealed that the company planned to build as many as 10 plants over the next 10 to 15 years, pulling in revenues of $1 billion over that time period.

SolarReserve is now saying it is working on agreements with several utilities to buy electricity generated from the plant. It hopes to have several announcements in a few months that could help jump-start construction of the first plant in California, according to company’s President Terry Murphy.

The plant could begin operating by early 2013. It would use an array of 15,000 heliostats, or large tilting mirrors about 25 feet wide, to direct sunlight to a solar collector atop a 600-foot-tall tower, somewhat like a lighthouse in reverse.