A new take on home solar

[unixronin]

Here's a new take on solar power for the home.  Kennewick, Washington based Infinia (Flash required) plans to release a solar-power solution using a Stirling-cycle engine and a dish that looks to be about C-band size.  The initial unit will have a capacity in the 3kW range, and is expected to be about 24% efficient, double the officiency of a photovoltaic system.  The collector dishes are sun-tracking, and can be placed together in close-packed dish farms.

Comments

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

My only problem with solar as a renewable source is that, well...there isn't enough sun here to really make it worth my while. Too much fog. What we *really* need is some way of using tidal forces. We've got plenty of sea-space, and we're far enough north that quite a bit of water moves around throughout the day (the sea rises and falls through about 2m, twice a day). So, we're talking about moving approx 12tg of water through the golden gate, daily, or 7200GW /24 period. So, even at 1% effiency, it's generating 3GW of power a day, or about 10% of electrical use of california, if I've done all my math right. (Assume: Mass of seawater is 1027kg/m3, golden gate is 1km across, daily tidal movement is 2m)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I'll bet you could generate nontrivial amounts of power with a submarine turbine array positioned pretty much right under the Golden Gate. The water is DEEP there, and there's a lot of flow. (Have you seen the Army Corps of Engineers exact-scale bay model in Sausalito? It's quite enlightening.)

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know. There was a reason that I choice it, and not a random 1km stretch of sea. :) Also, because of shipping traffic through it, it's *already* pretty much toasted for purposes of endangered life/noise pollution, so you don't really have the argument against it that you'd be ruining a pristine marine area. The only problem that I can see is silt levels and needing to maintain the turbines against them. I honestly wonder why nobody has really looked into it that I can tell.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Two words: Big Oil

[blackcoat.livejournal.com]

Ok, here's my problem with that. They outlay capital once, and then sell the power for, well..whatever they want. It's gotta be cheaper for them to have the moon do all the work, as opposed to selling oil and coal to companies. Or hell, why haven't power companies looked at it? Is it a pipe dream?

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Dunno but you do know the reason there are so many wind turbines out at Altamont Pass, right? It is cheaper to build new ones and get the tax write-off than it is to maintain the ones they've already got.

[novel-tharkun.livejournal.com]

Haven't reviewed any of the involved factors. But is 1% a reasonable choice of efficiency for a local area to supply such a large state? I seem to remember turbines being about 50% efficient, less maintenance. Add to that storage costs and efficiency thereof (since the peak tidal forces will not nicely coincide with peak usage).

Admittedly, it would seem that there should be gain. But it would be a massive undertaking, requiring a lot of careful design, to build an incredibly complicated system.

I'd love to try modeling it sometime, and might.

[fatcook.livejournal.com]

I like it. Here in Phoenix we get close to 12-14 hours of sun during the summer and 8-10 hours in the winter. I didn't see anything about cost though.