Stirling Dish Generator Using a Focal Point Internal to the Dish

Abstract

Green power generation needs to include the manufacturing process as well as the generation itself. For a system to be truly environmentally responsible it should be a renewable system which requires no caustic chemicals or similarly damaging processes while being built. For the proposed system, solar energy can be converted into usable energy without the use of ecologically harmful silicon based manufacturing. To accomplish this, a Stirling cycle-based heat engine with concentrated solar power is proposed. Thermal conversion of power from solar energy creates no harmful emissions. The proposed system will additionally be efficient when compared to a photovoltaic (PV) system with an equal footprint. It will also show a significant improvement in energy return on investment (EROI) when compared to other solar solutions. While solar powered heat engines exist, the proposed system is significantly different from existing systems due to the location of the heat absorber of the Stirling engine.