Derek Curry
Old technology, new promise
March 17th, 2010 by GenePodcast: Play in new window | Download
Promising new solar technology to generate electricity is almost a cliché these days. Let’s look at some promising, old, technology. Today, on Engineering Works!
When people talk about solar energy, they usually mean one of two things. Photovoltaic panels or solar concentrating plants. Some engineers are trying something else. An updated version of a 200-year-old invention to turn sunlight into electricity. This old technology is something called a Stirling engine. A Scottish clergyman named, you guessed it, Stirling, invented it in 1816.
The idea is simple. A Stirling engine has two cylinders and pistons. Kind of like a two-cylinder motorcycle engine. The space above the pistons is filled with a fluid, usually air or helium. Heat the gas in one cylinder and it expands, moving the piston. The gas cools and moves to the other cylinder, where it moves that piston and flows back to the first cylinder, where it’s heated again and the whole cycle starts over. It’s more complicated than this, but you should get the idea. They’re a lot more efficient than conventional internal combustion engines and need only a little outside heat to keep the cycle going.
In solar power plants, sunlight provides the heat that makes the gas expand. Sunlight is focused on the Stirling engine by a concentrator that looks like a big, shiny satellite TV dish. Stirling engines spin electric generators the same way turbines or diesel engines do.
Whew! It’s getting hot in here. We’ll see you next time.
Engineering Works! is made possible by Texas A&M Engineering and produced by KAMU-FM in College Station. Learn more about engineering. Visit us on the World Wide Web:
http://engineeringworks.tamu.edu
For more:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=are-engines-the-future-of-solar-power
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=stirling-in-deep-space
Appreciate the blog. I’ve been creating solar panels for small businesses for awhile now and doing pretty well… Thankful I found this place.
[...] Promising new solar technology to generate electricity is almost a cliche these days. Let’s look at some promising old technology. Today, on Engineering Works! Listen to the podcast. [...]
That technology does seem pretty cool. Never knew that was possible.
Nice post. Title is amazingly attractive. Would love to read more from you. Please keep posting.
test
Hello! I found your website very interesting and informative! I keep a similar site about the same theme, and I use every chanse I have to read what other bloggers write about solar panels on the internet. Have a great day!
Magnificent goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are just too excellent. I really like what you have acquired here, really like what you’re stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still care for to keep it smart. I can’t wait to read much more from you. This is really a wonderful web site.
Greetings! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and tell you I genuinely enjoy reading through your articles. Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same topics? Thank you!
Thanks for the kind words. Two of my favorite blogs are: Engineer blogs and Science blogs . Also . Check ‘em out.
Magnificent goods from you, man. I’ve understand your stuff previous to and you are just too excellent. I really like what you have acquired here, really like what you’re stating and the way in which you say it. You make it entertaining and you still care for to keep it smart. I can’t wait to read much more from you. This is really a wonderful web site.
hey there and thanks to your info ? I’ve certainly picked up anything new from proper here. I did alternatively experience several technical points using this site, as I skilled to reload the web site a lot of times prior to I could get it to load properly. I had been wondering if your hosting is OK? Not that I am complaining, but slow loading instances times will often affect your placement in google and can harm your quality score if ads and marketing with Adwords. Anyway I am including this RSS to my e-mail and could look out for much more of your respective interesting content. Ensure that you update this again very soon..
Very interesting with solar technology.
I love that we’re re-adapting existing technology to meet our current needs – techno recycling!