will using solar power help save the troubled economy?”
The city of Seville, Spain is soon to have 30% of its electrical energy supplied by steam driven turbines. In a typical application the steam comes from a heat exchanger which is powered by an oil or brine solution heated at the top of a tower surrounded by thousands of mirrors which follow the sun and concentrate the heat It’s effective, but I don’t like moving parts. Germany is installing huge megawatt photo voltaic (PV) “energy farms” seeking economies of scale for powering the grid. The nation invests heavily with the vendors by providing land and currency incentives. The Sandia National Renewable labs in Colorado, U.S.A. have just completed testing of a Sterling Motor solar generator. The so-called external combustion engine uses a liquid-gas recirculating process which powers a reciprocating motor that turns a generator averaging 25Kw per unit. Sunlight is collected and concentrated by a curved mirror which beams the heat at a receiver section that heats the medium. They are star
