Nov 11 2004
The National Nuclear Security Administration’s桑迪亚国家实验室正在与Phoenix的Stirling Energy Systems，Inc。（SES）一起建造和测试六个新的太阳能碟发动机系统，以提供足够的网格就绪太阳能电力，从而为40多个房屋供电。
从现在到一月之间，将在桑迪亚国家太阳能测试设施中安装五个新系统。他们将加入今年早些时候建立的原型风格动物系统，使六盘迷你发电厂在白天生产高达150kW的网格电力电源。
桑迪亚项目负责人查克·安德拉卡（Chuck Andraka）说：“这将是世界上最大的太阳能风格系统。”“最终，SES设想将有20,000个系统放置在一个或多个太阳能盘农场中，并为西南美国公用事业公司提供电力。”
Sandia and SES staff will work together over the next couple of months to assemble the five new state-of-the-art systems.
Each dish unit, which consists of 82 smaller mirrors formed in the shape of a dish, will be similar to the system installed earlier this year with some modifications to improve the design. The frame is steel made by Schuff Steel, also of Phoenix, while the mirrors, provided by Paneltec of Lafayette, Colo., are laminated onto a honeycomb aluminum structure invented and patented in the late 1990s by Sandia researcher Rich Diver (6218). The engine will be assembled at Sandia’s test facility using parts that were contracted out by SES.
一旦安装了单元，Sandia和SES的研究人员将尝试系统，以确定如何最好地集成在一个领域，并提高可靠性和性能。
安德拉卡说：“拥有一个我们可以操作的系统是一回事，但是要使六个必须一致工作是另一回事。”
每个单元自动运行。如果没有操作员干预甚至现场的存在，它每天早晨都在黎明开始，全天运作，跟踪阳光并根据需要响应云和风。最后，它在日落时就关闭了。可以通过Internet监视和控制该系统。研究人员希望使六个系统与自动化级别相同。执行此集成的控件和软件将可扩展到更大的设施。
The solar dish generates electricity by focusing the sun’s rays onto a receiver, which transmits the heat energy to an engine. The engine is a sealed system filled with hydrogen, and as the gas heats and cools, its pressure rises and falls. The change in pressure drives the pistons inside the engine, producing mechanical power. The mechanical power in turn drives a generator and makes electricity.
The cost for each prototype unit is about $150,000. Once in production SES estimates that the cost could be reduced to less than $50,000 each, which would make the cost of electricity competitive with conventional fuel technologies.
SES执行副总裁兼总经理Bob Liden说，太阳能电动发电盘阵列是该国部分阳光明媚的产品的选择，例如新墨西哥州，亚利桑那州，加利福尼亚州和内华达州。他们可以将它们链接在一起以提供公用规模的功率。假设覆盖11平方英里的太阳能盘农场每年可以产生与胡佛大坝一样多的电力，而在美国西南部，一个100英里乘100英里的农场可以提供尽可能多的电力来为整个国家供电。
Liden说：“另一个应用程序可能是在网格偏远地区的独立单位（例如Navajo保留地）操作，并为一个或几个房屋供应电源。”独立单位已经被证明是在农村地区抽水的有效手段。
He notes the dish-Stirling system works at higher efficiencies than any other current solar technologies, with a net solar-to-electric conversion efficiency reaching 30 percent. Each unit can produce up to 25 kilowatts of daytime power.
“This is the perfect type of electricity generation for the Southwest,” Liden says. “It’s a renewable resource, it’s pollution free, and the maintenance of a solar farm is minimal.”
One of the system’s advantages is that it is “somewhat modular,” and the size of the facility can be ramped up over a period of time, Andraka says. That is compared to a traditional power plant or other large-scale solar technologies that have to be completely built before they are operational.
SES和Sandia之间的合作被认为对这项技术的成功至关重要。安德拉卡说，这种现场团队是在能源领域开展业务的一种新方法，并且在DOE总部受到关注。他说：“没有更多提供技术转移的方法。”
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