Hi everyone,
For a summer project, I want to build an efficient solar powered generator. I want to use a parabolic mirror to collect the sun’s energy.
Should I use the collected sunlight as heat differential to power a stirling engine?
Or use the sunlight to boil water creating steam to power a steam engine.
I’ll use the engines to drive an 3 kw generator
or should I just focus the light to a solar panel?
Here are some of my other worries that I’m hoping you can shed light on too:
- can the heat from the parabolic mirrors destroy the solar panels?
- is the stirling engine better than the steam engine?
thanks in advanced everyone!
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
You’re going to need a lot of mirror. Solar input is about 1 kw/meter2, solar cell efficiency is in the 20% range, same for steam or sterling, so that’s around 15 sq. meters of mirror you will need. You also need aiming mechanisms to keep them accurately pointed at the sun – not easy for a home project for that much mirror. Ordinary solar cells will be cooked by concentrated sunlight. Some high-efficiency cells can handle as much as 100 suns of input. Relative efficiency of steam vs sterling engines depend on a lot of design details. You need to do much more research than just Yahoo Answers before you start building.
The more you change forms of energy the more energy loss you can expect. The stirling engine is more efficient than a typical steam engine but the steam engine may be easier to build from an old two stroke engine. Solar panels will tend to the the least efficient, 8 to 22%. Those companies that use concentrated sunlight to power a photovoltaic cell use the highest possible cells that cost a great deal more than what is commonly available.
Go with the stirling for efficiency or the steam engine for ease of operation.