What is driving the recent surge in demand for sodium nitrate in China?

What is driving the recent surge in demand for sodium nitrate in China?
The main growth driver for sodium nitrate is the booming concentrated solar power (CSP) sector. China's push to pair wind and solar farms with thermal energy storage has triggered a wave of CSP projects. As of late 2022, under-construction CSP capacity reached about 2.7 GW, roughly 4.6 times the installed base. These plants typically use a binary molten salt of 60% sodium nitrate and 40% potassium nitrate. The 2.7 GW pipeline alone implies around 65,000 tonnes of molten salt demand, translating to roughly 39,000 tonnes of sodium nitrate. Prices have already responded, climbing from about 3,300 yuan per tonne early in 2022 to 3,800-4,300 yuan by October. With more projects in planning, supply tightness is expected to persist through the mid-decade.