Lately I have been extremely interested in building a Sterling Engine to drive a small generator. The thought is not original by any stretch of the imagination as I found a number of references when I started my research into how to build a Sterling Engine. There is a lot of info on the topic and some very nice looking models for sale. Part of the interest stems from my desire to start using the lathe I bought some years back. I am currently looking for a small mill or a high end drill/mill. Anyways back to the whole solar powered Sterling Engine. I have been looking at parabolic mirrors to focus the incoming sunlight onto the heat chamber side of the engine. The issue is getting a mirror of this type with the size needed to drive and engine capable of producing somewhere in the range of 500 watts to 1kw. I have been researching some alternatives to this type of mirror including the method of allowing the reflective surface to form the focus point by itself. The a specific name for this is a Catenary Reflector. In the article in Make: it mentions that about a 1/4 hang versus width is pretty close to being a parabolic mirror and use to be considered a parabolic.
So the other day as I was driving home, I was listening to NPR...yes I do that a lot as most radio stations talk about nothing way too much, and they were discussing the plans for the new Nuclear Plants in the US. The Green Movement fanatic kept going on and on about how nuclear is a failed technology and how the Green Energy forms were the only way to go. He also discussed the environmental impact of the radioactive waste. Agreed there is waste, but the Green Movement always seems to forget that there are major environmental issues even with the green movements. Some of the things that most forget about most Green Methods of generating electricity are as follows n my mind:
You are reliant on something that is completely unpredictable. You cannot count on the sun, wind or any of the others to be steady and always be there, so you would need to combine at least 2 but probably 3 or 4 methods to be a viable alternative to a controlled source like a coal plant
You cannot easily increase or decrease production. This can also be said about typical power plants. The point I am trying to make is that the peak usage generally occurs at night, so your solar plant would be offline at this point or having to transmit the power very long distances. The same is true with the efforts to create power from tidal flow and geothermic. So the biggest issue with the green power movement is the ability to store the power created during non-peak usage but peak time for producing power. The only real method of storing power is batteries. The batteries and their production can and have been very damaging to the environment as they contain heavy metals and other toxins.
Above I referred to the speaker as a fanatic, which is not exactly fair, as he is probably just very passionate about the concepts of environmentally friendly energy. The point that most miss though is that there are issues with this energy and practical uses of it. A fully electric car sounds great and I would love a Tesla Motors car. But it has to be charged and that power has to come from somewhere, at night when the sun is gone. So the people screaming for the electric cars as being the only way to go that are also screaming about the new power plants being build (be them coal, nuclear or green) you cannot have one without the other.
I feel that we are going to have to address the production of power and figure out better ways to harness the avaliable power the environment provides. At the same time though the traditional power plants will ahve to exist to help fill the voids left in the system when using other methods. I was extremely happy to hear about California's law for putting solar panels on building, which makes perfect sense as the area is generally wasted space otherwise. Also what about the possiblitiy of harnessing the lsot power in parking lots? Parking lots produce a ton of heat that is just released back into the air. When I was a child, my dad fashioned a heater for the pool that consisted of a length of coiled black tubing ontop of a black board. He tapped off of the skimming unit. The coild was about 6' in length and the water that come out of the tube was hot enough to allow use to start swimming earlier and later than others in the area. How about continuing to improve solar panels so that they can be laid easily, preferably as shingles on houses to make the self sufficent during the day? There are a number of areas that we need to look at the waste energy that is being retransmitted as heat. Which brings us full circle backt to the Sterling Engine. An engine that can be run off of waste heat to drive generators. So would it be possible to bury piping in a parkign lot, fill the pipes with water, use the heated water to drive a helium filled Sterling Engine (multiple cylinder) and drive a generator that could offset the power use of the building with the parking lot?
The golden grail of all of the efforts for Green Energy and transportation is the development of safe high capacity batteries that do not cost a fortune. The Telsa Motor mentioned above at last check required a Lithium battery pack that ran about $30,000 and had to be replaced every so many years. hard to beat that old internal cumbustion engine that runs for decades with little repair. Yes you probably pay the $30,000 every few years in gas, but you do not feel it the same as a one time hit.
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