We are preparing for several guests here in mid August to build the open source solar concentrator power system. Today, Benjamin from the Solar Turbine email group sent an updated design on the solar reflector mounting:

In the August convergence, we’re looking to generate steam production data from this concentrator system. We’re predicting steam for 500 watts of useful power on the first run. The system cost is $2.5k – or about $5 per installed watt. This results from overall 3% efficiency, out of a theoretical maximum of 40% (Carnot efficiency = (500K-300K)/500KJ). We think  that we’ll achieve 15% efficiency after optimization -  or $1/installed watt costs. That is very promising.

We need help on sourcing a heat engine and tracking down other knowledgeable individuals for the email group. Our implementation will be the best teacher – and I think a heat engine will appear from somewhere once we have steam data.

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Categories: Solar Turbine

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