Home
JAQForum Ver 24.01
Log In or Join  
Active Topics
Local Time 08:10 22 Nov 2024 Privacy Policy
Jump to

Notice. New forum software under development. It's going to miss a few functions and look a bit ugly for a while, but I'm working on it full time now as the old forum was too unstable. Couple days, all good. If you notice any issues, please contact me.

Forum Index : Solar : solar generator

Author Message
jeff

Newbie

Joined: 29/05/2007
Location: United States
Posts: 4
Posted: 07:40pm 02 Jun 2007
Copy link to clipboard 
Print this post

While surfing the web I found this article and thought it was interesting , I was wondering if anyone has tried this before.


http://www.technologyreview.com/read_article.aspx?id=17169&c h=biztech
 
Storm

Regular Member

Joined: 12/09/2005
Location: Australia
Posts: 43
Posted: 12:03pm 03 Jun 2007
Copy link to clipboard 
Print this post

One of my previous projects was to build one of these heaters, I’ve still got the parts lying around incase I wanted to play again later. I had a machine shop bend a sheet of mirror stainless to my specs then I set it in an insulated box with a glass lid so the outside so air temp didn't effect the focus tube (they hotter you get something the quicker it sheds heat due to a natural equilibrium effect) I lost interest once I realised they only work well in direct sun unless built on very large scale. When it’s cloudy the system can’t heat enough to make the steam. The large power plants use huge oil reservoirs and computer controlled valves to hold the heat constant for long periods of bad weather. Now I can't say it wont work in africa or central australia its just that in colder climates like Vic, Tas, S.A. etc there just isnt enough constant direct sunlight to be viable.
 
Print this page


To reply to this topic, you need to log in.

© JAQ Software 2024