motion guru
Diamond
- Joined
- Dec 8, 2003
- Location
- Yacolt, WA
I visited a plant this week that was building sterling engine powered power plants. Infinia Corp.
It was an interesting integration of solar and inverter technology.
I saw at least 3 applications sitting on the floor - and they had several solar power plants producing power outside.
One application was burning natural gas to power the generator with the waste heat used to heat the home. The claim was 95% + conversion of the energy from the gas to electricity + home heating + water heating. It installs like a furnace but also provides the energy to run the furnace fans and heat the water and sell energy back to the utility.
Another was a diesel fired unit that made hot water and electricity for field military deployments.
Lastly was actual solar generator.
The plants were quiet and had a mechanical design life of 25 years and were basically sealed units with the motors filled with helium as the working fluid.
They job everything out and only do final assembly of components. The parts are designed for manufacturing - the reflective mirrors are stamped much like an automotive body panel and then coated with a metalized mirrored adhesive film.
Local article on the company behind this
They have a small 150kW installation in Spain running now - and test systems running in a few installations in the US. This is one of the few technologies that looks like it might actually make sense from an energy balance stand point and it employs traditional manufacturing capacity that is already in place.
It was an interesting integration of solar and inverter technology.
I saw at least 3 applications sitting on the floor - and they had several solar power plants producing power outside.
One application was burning natural gas to power the generator with the waste heat used to heat the home. The claim was 95% + conversion of the energy from the gas to electricity + home heating + water heating. It installs like a furnace but also provides the energy to run the furnace fans and heat the water and sell energy back to the utility.
Another was a diesel fired unit that made hot water and electricity for field military deployments.
Lastly was actual solar generator.
The plants were quiet and had a mechanical design life of 25 years and were basically sealed units with the motors filled with helium as the working fluid.
They job everything out and only do final assembly of components. The parts are designed for manufacturing - the reflective mirrors are stamped much like an automotive body panel and then coated with a metalized mirrored adhesive film.
Local article on the company behind this
They have a small 150kW installation in Spain running now - and test systems running in a few installations in the US. This is one of the few technologies that looks like it might actually make sense from an energy balance stand point and it employs traditional manufacturing capacity that is already in place.