http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25285030/ A new type of solar energy collector concentrates the sun into a beam that could melt steel. Researchers say the device could revolutionize global energy production. The prototype is a 12-foot-wide mirrored dish was made from a lightweight frame of thin, inexpensive aluminum tubing and strips of mirror. It concentrates sunlight by a factor of 1,000 to produce steam. The technology is improving steadily month over month year over year. Watched a show last week on PLGN where the guy from Survivorman moves his family onto a 165 acre lot in Canada, re works a barn on site for their home and puts in solar panels and a wind mill which completely leaves them off the grid. I dont know about anyone else but I would love to be able to tell FPL to stick their $250.00 a month power bill where the sun dont shine and if I could sell excess back to them would be a bonus.
Its the same concept as magnyfying glass .Concentrate the sun rays to a focal point and it generates high temperatures which in turn can be converted to steam.
It would be lovely to have a Department of Eneegy that instead of looking for a golden bullet would finally figure out that energy independence will come from embracing a whole series of technologies like solar in all its forms (including this), wind, geothermal, hydro, and conversion into gasoline of various products. Only a widely integrated solutiobn, imo, will suceed!
The coolest solar power Ive heard of so far is the spaceborne collecter, using a microwave beam to shoot the collected energy to an earthborne distrubutor First I saw of it was actually in (lol) SimCity 2, the Microwave Power Plant think it was called. Seemed high fantasy at the time, but since then have seen snippets of actual reasearch and such on it. OFC the best overall has to be fusion, but no idea if we are anywhere near the capability to perform this. Likely not. But if there is one "golden bullet" thats it.
Parabolic mirrors are much more efficient. To capture enough power the glass would have to be huge, you would be better served using a Fresnel lens, it is several orders more efficient than a single lens.
