This was news to me — news that defense contracting conglomerate United Technologies (NYSE: UTX) intends to use to ride the same wave of solar fever that has lifted firms like First Solar (Nasdaq: FSLR) and Suntech (NYSE: STP), Trina (NYSE: TSL) and SunPower (Nasdaq: SPWR) to prominence … and profits. According to a press release, United Tech has stumbled upon a new way to profit from ‘free’ energy: It’s not going to compete with the solar panel makers, but complement them. As you probably know, the second-biggest knock against solar (second to the fact that it costs more than most alternatives) is that when the sun goes out, so too does the power source. United Tech’s solution: Store the energy. The firm’s Hamilton Sundstrand subsidiary aims to partner with private equity shop ‘US Renewables Group’ to establish a new company called ‘SolarReserve.’ The aim of the new company: Commercializing a new form of solar power generation that can fill the gaps between sunrise and sunset left by the solar panel makers. Power how? With sun … and salt. SolarReserve aims to construct concentrated solar power towers filled with a mixture of sodium and potassium nitrate […]