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We had some really great threads last year, with the following four nominated for the Thread of the Year award in this January's Environment Site Awards ceremony.

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Sheffied Energy Recovery Facility | Nanosolar breakthrough: Solar cheaper than Coal | What lessons should be learned from summer floods | Can you be a capitalist and environmentalists at the same time?

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Old 12th-February-2008, 08:59 AM
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Default Solar power with Stirling engine
Infinia dish turns out solar power with Stirling engine

Infinia dish turns out solar power with Stirling engine | Green Tech blog - CNET News.com

Dishing out power with a solar engine | CNET News.com

Images: Harnessing solar via an old technology | CNET News.com
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Old 16th-February-2008, 08:40 AM
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And more.

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This January, on an exceptionally clear and cold day, scientists for the Sandia National Laboratory and Sterling Energy Systems recorded a 31.25% solar-to-grid effieciency, nearly 2% better than the 1989 record.
New World Record Set For Solar Efficiency: 31.25% : MetaEfficient
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Old 16th-February-2008, 06:56 PM
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Cool ! See also; What is a Stirling Engine?

Stirling Energy Systems Inc. - What is a Stirling Engine?

Now if they combined the Molten Salt storage technology with the efficiency of the Stirling Engine, then you might get one very efficient base load solar thermal power plant.


Concentrating solar power plants
Concentrating Solar Power | SolarCentral
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Parabolic trough plants could yield capacity factors greater than 70%, competing directly with future baseload coal plants. NREL: TroughNet - Parabolic Trough Power Plant Market, Economic Assessment and Deployment
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Disclaimer. Interpret posts with discretion. Conduct research and investigations to satisfy your judgement.
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Old 9th-March-2008, 03:23 PM
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It's ironic that the Stirling engine seems to finally be coming into it's own almost two hundred years after its invention. There should be a lot of applications for it on a smaller scale also as there is so much waste heat generated by appliances, engines, etc.
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Old 9th-March-2008, 06:25 PM
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Yes I think we have barely tapped the surface of the Stirling Engines potential. I can think of several household waste heat applications and also motor vehicles. For household you have waste heat from oven/stove, hot water drainage etc... I was thinking that the vehicle engine heat could be tapped and converted into electrical energy and cool air from the environment outside the vehicle once in motion. At present most cars try to cool the engine with air and water. Use big heat sink/tank to tap the engine heat to feed the Stirling Engine. I'm wondering if it could help make an electric vehicle more energy efficient. It seems sort of common sense, though I'm not sure if its being done.
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Quote:
Parabolic trough plants could yield capacity factors greater than 70%, competing directly with future baseload coal plants. NREL: TroughNet - Parabolic Trough Power Plant Market, Economic Assessment and Deployment
Green Instantaneous Energy ! Massive Electrical Storage ! Ultracapacitors Minutes Charging
Disclaimer. Interpret posts with discretion. Conduct research and investigations to satisfy your judgement.
Last edited by LMagic007; 9th-March-2008 at 06:38 PM.
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