This is the first video from our “Viewers Video” segment where we showcase GreenPowerScience inspired work or other work that offers great ideas in the Green Energy Field. Joe Carruth built this by himself and this is the third prototype of his design. The unit weighs 1.5 tons and is 12.5 ft x 14.5 ft of active collection area. He currently manually tracks the sun for testing and hopes to get some funding to bring this project to a self contained version that can be available for Alternative Power production.
Video Rating: 4 / 5
25 Responses
hello!, just a quick comment if all the mirrors are targeted on the water if you added a lense like a magnifing glass just before the water you could significantly increase the heat!, good luck with your project!
You can charge an electric car with that !
Now he has to work on “saving” the energy.
In answer to some of the questions it looks like a Mike Brown 20HP steam engine.
@Javaguru555 looks home made to me
@garand I see the problem. But I think (hope), that a strong and permanent stream of cooling water over the frontside and the backside of the photovoltaic cell (then encased in a flat closed glass container and coated with synthetic resin) could keep the temperature low enough (under 212 F) to prevent the deterioration of the cell. The warmed-up water could then be cooled down in a car or truck cooler (closed cooling system).
@Terascon when you focus light on a photoV cell the heat deteriorates the cell quickly. 3M has a reflective coating that allows the heat portion to not be reflected. it did increase the output about 20-30% with solar tracking algorithm.
How much did this cost to build?
Great work! But how about combining a big photovoltaic cell in the focal point (efficiency = 16-20 %) with a efficient water circulation cooling system (with a truck cooler)?
Actually this combination of steam engine and solar collector could also work in space right? Or in space solar panels have more efficiency?
Where did this guy get his steam engine? I can’t find one like the one he has anywhere on the net.
This is a lot funner to watch than solar panels.
both the uguys rocks
awesome!!!!
Hi.. Good idea.. Solar energy is obviously the way to go for clean and AFFORDABLE energy..
But , there are projects much much more advanced, complete and effective..
And they are FREE and OPEN Source !!!
Search “Solar Fire P32” in youtube or google and check the “Basics” video..
It’s impressive !!
(can’t post direct link here , sorry)
i would give her something more than a budget…….
wow really nice.
In the video they talk about some special modifications to the mirror array.
I do know that if a person uses “regular mirror” or second surface mirrors that you loose a tiny bit if efficiency due to the light being bounced THROUGH the glass 2 times and also the type and color of the glass used in the mirrors.
What would work better is first surface mirror like the big companies use.
Good luck finding that type of mirrored glass.
Also the elements tend to remove the coating unless they are coated
@2009mechanic Heating less water would in turn cause less heat to be lost and faster heating. However, you will need a water feed system that will drip water into the tube at exactly the same rate as it is used. This is very do-able if you recycle the steam from the output, condense it by pre-heating the water that enters you home’s water heater for example. A stirling engine is a good alternative, but you will need to use a REALLY reliable cooling system and a robust engine design.
@yellowmetalcyborg
Would it be more efficient to use a coiled copper tube collector or receiver at the focal point instead of the tank heating the water in volume ?
This IS what I am designing and building for the receiver at the focal point of the dish .
My thinking was it would be better to circulate a smaller amount of water through the copper coiled receiver to better heat it and convert to higher temperature steam ?
Perhaps should I just build the Sterling engine with a refrigerant ??
@2009mechanic Not to mention the fact that he’s using wet steam. He can dramatically increase efficiency if he used a superheater. By increasing the temperature of the steam, he would be raising the theoretical carnot thermodynamic efficiency limit. A superheater can be a copper tube that passes through the focal point of an auxilliary solar dish, or just the interior of the boiler. Basically, he looked over a lot of crucial technical details and could have done a better job : .
@ff7masta Go to 10, mate
@bobviously It’s not viable, mate.
@ff7masta That’s fine for barroom banter, but there are good minds working on it, despite their plodding progress. There’s no need to be pessimistic about it, unless you’ve got more insight on it.
@bobviously I’m a physics student =
Fusion will always be 50 years away.