Concentrated Solar Power

            An amazing machine once rose in the California desert capable of concentrating sunshine into a spot of intense heat and power onto a plate mounted on a high tower.  It was near Barstow and the plate, visible for miles, glowed like the sun.  Its molten saly filled lines carried heat from the plate to a remote turbogenerator.  It produced megawatts of power. Alas, this beautiful and expensive to operate DOE device, Solar 2, was shut down several years ago, being too expensive to operate in those days of cheap oil.

            A large part of the expense was due to its complexity.  The hundreds of mirror assemblies which focused sunlight onto the tower plate were individually cable connected to a central office and were individually directed toward the tower through the day.  The mirrors and tower were huge, requiring cranes for installation and routine maintenance.

            We set out to design and build a smaller system which could be assembled by 2 people operating from a flat bed truck.  Each mirror assembly was autonomous, capable of accurately reflecting the sun’s rays to the tower automatically, without human involvement.  The tower(s) were vertically self erecting and collapsing to simplify maintenance. We called the mirror assemblies Heliobots.

            Our first test of quarter size Heliobot Model A is shown in this 1975 photo. We later moved it onto our roof. It automatically reflected a solar beam on a target with a half degree deviation through the day.  On this photo we have overlayed a tracing of the beam to show its path.  Behind this quarter scale model is a full size Heliobot.  A one acre field of these could generate 250 kW of electricity during peak hours, plus a similar amount of energy in heated and chilled water. This would be sufficient for 100 homes or businesses.

            AER has also considered methods for storing this energy for use into the evenings.