Solar power

Last I heard PG&E was bringing a couple on line out in the Mojave to generate power with.

JC

PG&E has a big solar stirling project somewhere. I've heard different stories about them, but apparently they're kinematic machines, which is a surprise because most of the large-scale solar stirling experiments and pilot projects have been done with free-piston engines.

As always, they have possibilities. Cost and lubrication have been big issues. At the high end, lubrication has been solved.

Although I'm a stirling enthusiast, I keep my enthusiasm curbed. They've been around since 1816, and except for a short period from around 1880 -

"Stu Fields" on Fri, 16 Jul 2010 05:52:45 -0700 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following:

I mentioned that to a friend, he sent me the following link.

Really cool. Not just for Solar power, but for storing hydropower from irrigation dams.

Neat

Well, it looks like I need to find a great book now. Didn't know ole Rudolf killed himself over trying to figure the engine out. Looks like it took between 30 to 40 years to get the injector right.

I had assumed it was accomplished without injectors and maybe right...? Also assumed they had to wait for someone to come up with the injector to make it useful, which might be right...?

But, thanks, I had no idea they where doing such things from close to the get go. I've been trying to get some good old books through the library system, now it seems that the copy writes expire they don't want to let you check out the old cool books cause they are old and rare. Getting a hold of that good information has always been a pet peeve, so I best drop it before I go off on a rant.

I've never seen an injector apart and was hoping to get that diesel VW to force myself to learn. Plus I have a friend who lives close that knows diesels very well, he even has a Simi that you can't reach the $100 bill taped to the dash from the acceleration between gears.

Not long ago I found out what they mean by a hit and miss engine, I assumed it was like a 6 - 8 cycle engine of some sort. Never thought it was possible to let it turn until more power/speed was needed. Must have huge valves and opened far to make it work.

I think I might have lost you on the heat thing, not your stove. Use the heat from your generators for an evaporative cooler for your refrigerator.

Flight engineer. Isn't that the person the pilot and co-pilot look to, to see if they look scared ?

SW

That article is from April 2009 and talks about a full scale prototype in 6 months. Their website news page

----- Regards, Carl Ijames

There is an awful lot of commercial roof space out there, and additionally, commercial roofs tend to be flat (easier to work on and lower visibility), and have A/C units on them that could benefit from the shading an array of solar panels mounted a couple feet above them would create. Generate some electricity from the solar panels, shade the A/C units to increase their efficiency, and also shade the roof to reduce the solar heat load, you end up with a triple gain. Add in some energy efficiency tax credits and the costs are not that bad. Add in some "green" publicity for the business and you may have another benefit. Don't forget some solar thermal panels for your hot water needs.

Lots of old engine books on archive.org, just none showing current Diesel practice. There's at least a couple of dozen ways of getting fuel into a Diesel cylinder, the one Rudolf invented isn't used much anymore, which was blasting the charge in there with compressed air.

Stan

"wake"?

Thanks, Rich