On Sun, Jun 29, 2008 at 9:28 AM, Scott Stewart <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was watching some on the Discovery Channel about some new solar > technology, that collects and concentrates solar energy to drive a hydrogen > powered generator (piston driven via gas expansion), the creator says that a > 100 sq/mi array of these devices could power the US for a year. With almost > no overhead.
I think this is called a Stirling Engine... From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine "Placed at the focus of a parabolic mirror a Stirling engine can convert solar energy to electricity with an efficiency better than non-concentrated photovoltaic cells, and comparable to Concentrated Photo Voltaics. On August 11, 2005, Southern California Edison announced[59] an agreement to purchase solar powered Stirling engines from Stirling Energy Systems[60] over a twenty year period and in quantity (20,000 units) sufficient to generate 500 megawatts of electricity. These systems, on a 4,500 acre (19 km²) solar farm, will use mirrors to direct and concentrate sunlight onto the engines which will in turn drive generators." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:263103 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
