New Solar Dish from MIT Powerful Enough to Melt Solid Steel
July 27, 2008 · Print This Article
MIT students have created a new solar dish that is powerful enough to melt solid steel. While photo-voltaic solar technology has long been known as relatively inefficient in its current form, the new way to concentrate solar energy developed by the MIT students is far more powerful, and very inexpensive to build. Known as a ‘parabolic collector’, this way of harnessing solar energy has yet to be researched intensively. The students created their parabolic collector out of aluminum frames and mirrors.
From Inside Tech:
The MIT team believes that their lightweight, inexpensive device holds the promise of revolutionizing the power industry and providing solar power to even remote regions.
The key piece is the 12-foot dish, which the team assembled in several weeks. The design is exceedingly simple and inexpensive. The frame is composed of aluminum tubing and mirrors are attached to it.
The results are staggering – the completed mirror focuses enough solar energy at its focal point to melt solid steel. The energy of typical sunlight is concentrated by a factor of 1,000. This was showcased during a demonstration, in which a team member held up a board, which instantly and violently combusted, when brought within range of the focal point.
By directing the dish at a more practical target – water piped through black tubing – steam can be flash created, offering instant means of producing energy or providing heating.
The students have even created their own company, RawSolar, to mass-produce the design. The new dishes would provide a return on investment within a mere couple of years, rather than the 10 years or more it currently takes to make your money back on photovoltaics.
This is exactly what we need in green technology – some kickass muscle power! We should be seeing a lot more research in this area soon.
Link [Inside Tech]
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Wow! The MIT team are up to quite a number of things at the moment. I hadn’t heard of this though. Solar PV has long suffered from being inefficient. Maybe thats all about to change.
eh. I looked at this area of technology. there are all sorts of problems related to heat dissipation and the like with the semiconductors that they are using at the focal power. concentrated solar, which by the way is quite a well established technology unlike what you say, is still ultimately bound by the low density characteristic of sun light (~200 watts/meter^2), and the unreliability of the source. Places which use this technology for grid power have huge government subsidies to make them competitive, and still have to run coal plants anyway to make up for the shortfall when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. it also takes a large amount of time and energy to crank up a coal plant, so they effectively have to run them the whole time anyway.
wind and solar energy are a waste of time and resources for grid power. Nuclear power is the way forward and has been for decades now. I think its tragic that misguided environmentalists have been successful in delaying the construction of new nuclear power stations in america.
Nuclear power !! Are you serious ? Aren’t you aware the waste is radioactive for 10,000 years!!! If you can’t see that solar is the way forward you’ve obviously had your head someplace where the sun don’t shine !!!
The concentration they are talking about can also be used to heat an oil substance, which retains its heat over a longer period of time. There are also developments that don’t use a fluid as a medium, with the sunlight directly charging a battery…the answer is on the horizon, would be here by now if it wasn’t for the idiot Ronald Reagan killing off the impetus for development so many yrs ago.
Yes I’m completely serious. Nuclear power is THE safest and cleanest, and the second cheapest, power source we have.
Actually the waste technically stays radioactive forever. The waste problem has been solved a long time ago. Anyone who tells you otherwise simply doesn’t know what they are talking about. I can explain in more detail if you want, but the information is out there if you steer clear of the patent liars like greenpeace & co.
I think you are refering to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_solar_thermal_power_stations. There are two kinds of concentrated solar, one that uses the heat like a traditional carnot engine, and the other that uses semiconductors (PV) to produce electricity. They are both uneconomical fantasies. Expensive, unreliable, require huge amounts of land. Wind and Solar only make sense when there is a lack of grid electricity infrastructure. I mean, the difference is galactic: solar ~200 Watts/m^2 (and even then only half the time), nuclear fission is 90,000,000,000,000 Joules per kilogram.
Didn’t I see this on Mythbusters? Why are we supposed to be impressed…is it the application they are proud of?