Solar Steam by sunflower
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Finalist Evaluation
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You have the technology angle covered, but how do you propose to advance the technology to a small city or town in a developing country? What is the pathway you intend to take to deliver on, say, district heating?
And how does it differ from or expand upon what exists in places like Guelph?
http://guelph.ca/wp-content/uploads/011514_DistrictEnergyStrategicPlan_web.pdf
Semi-Finalist Evaluation
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Judges'' comments
The proposal would also benefit from explicitly explaining the applications for this technology and how it integrates with the other technologies outlined.
The proposal claims that this could be used for industrial or district-level applications, however the details provided do not convincingly show that this would be an economically viable solution. The costs estimates seem to be focused on the dish construction, but not for entire systems needed to reliably provide the promised power. Full workings-out of the math for some typical applications in different latitudes would be helpful e.g; land required, systems and infrastructure costs, benefits.
It would be very interesting to hear more how the ‘open sourced’ model for development commercialisation alluded to in the proposal would work e.g; IP, technology and knowledge sharing.
 Doug Wood Jun 8, 2016 02:42  | Proposal creator
Summary... Addendum (Briefly, very low on space) below under sub tab References... Addendum 2016.06.08 Most of the IPH systems tested were closed-loop deaerated water plumbed with conventional steam pipes and heat exchangers connected to the inputs of existing boilers. The boilers then controlled temperatures and flow rates to loads. This is also done in India. Sweden recently connected nearly all buildings to a new polymer heating grid, then interconnected whole cities together and deployed bore hole seasonal heat storage. They found it simple to connect large solar arrays to the return heat pipes. Concentrator photovoltaic cells (CPV) and high-intensity photovoltaic cells (HIPV) type III-V are a cool way to make low-cost efficient power. Cooling is key. See video -- CLIMATE - Cloud cover is much more important than latitude. Without clouds everybody would get about the same energy per year... NREL has an excellent tool for making climate performance calculations. http://http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/1961-1990/redbook/atlas/ LAND - Packing density for dual axis tracking is about 25% to avoid shading from low altitude sun, like the spacing of fruit trees in a field. There are about 4000 m^2 per acre allowing 1000 m^2 concentrator aperture per acre,... Our business plan to supply open source solar steam technology comes directly from our market research. It is the only way to scale quickly at low cost. The plan is to build sample concentrators then publish engineered blueprints online.... Solar concentrators can supply humanity with nearly all required energy sustainably -- heating, cooling, power, and transportation. Impact vision must see video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr-grdspEWQ For full addendum go to the end of DESCRIPTION TAB below References. |
Doug Wood Jun 9, 2016 12:05 | Proposal creator (At end of actions) Balance of system requirements are highly diverse in terms of application temperatures, footprint of demand, value, cost, and performance. Least cost is hot water and wet steam plugged into existing systems. Typical field piping to headers would be ordinary insulated half inch water piping of trivial cost. Pipe performance nominally 95% at 105 C. Small industries closed on weekends would benefit from two day storage tanks. Large industries can use annual bore-hole ground storage to match 100% loads. Seasonal heat storage cost depends on ground type, rock most expensive and clay least expensive, typically 30% of system cost. Annual storage performance can be 90% in very large systems. NREL Solar Radiation link -- http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/old_data/nsrdb/1961-1990/redbook/atlas/ |
Doug Wood Jul 8, 2016 07:45 | Proposal creator Finalist Evaluation Technology transfer to a small town in a developing economy is a later stage development. First the technology needs commercial blueprinting, then optical and thermal testing, then a large array pilot plant deployed to an existing district heating system. Though district heating systems are rare in North America they are surprisingly common on university campuses. Stanford and New Mexico State University Las Cruces were interviewed for pilot plants. If during these developments international organizations request plans then such will be delivered free of charge. There is strong interest from places like India for industrial process heat, cooling, water purification, and food cooking.
Least cost deployments would use existing infrastructures in both developed and developing economies.
The Guelph district heating proposal is interesting. Sweden was at this stage 40 years ago. I found the following illuminating --
Historically, national energy policies have tended to emphasize the oil, gas and electricity supply systems, and largely ignored heat as a major energy form. Some countries are recognizing the strategic importance of managing the generation, waste and distribution of heat. This is apparent in the national heat plans and priorities of the EU, Korea and parts of China, among others. In Ontario, heat has been the “neglected utility”, though there are some early signs that this may change, largely caused by municipal pressure from cities like Guelph.
The differences are styles of engineering -- Germany heavy use of industrial materials, Denmark organic from the ground up, Sweden simple and eloquent. Old pre-1940s systems were steam that now suffer from leaks, metal corrosion, and poor insulation. Modern systems are 105 C hot water and have very long life all polymer pipes.
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