Where to buy a personal Solar Thermal Energy device?

Question

I keep hearing how Solar Thermal Energy, which directs solar energy into a common collector via mirrors and stores it as hear is things like salts...is going to revolutionize power. Meanwhile I'm sick of waiting for my power company to adopt it....and I obviously can't afford the "full power plant" sized versions the STE producers seem so fixed on selling.

Is there any way I can buy a personal STE/electricity generator (IE enough power to run a 2 bedroom apartment)? And, if so, where?

Answer 1

Make one man. Its called a parabolic trough, and is basically just a big curved mirror with a tube placed where the sun is concentrated. The tube is surrounded by a second transparent tube that acts as a kind of greenhouse. You can use it to heat your water or if you make a good one, to drive a little turbine.....

Answer 2

One problem with solar thermal electric generation is that in a full-sized plant, the solar energy is used to make steam which then drives a steam turbine to create electricity.   This is quite a process.   It usually includes a boiler to make very high pressure steam (for good efficiencies), plus a cooling tower to reject the low-grade heat from the turbine steam exhaust, a water treatment system (because turbine blades are pretty fragile and you don't want contaminants in your steam) and then an electric generator to create electricity.

The typical steam pressures used are quite high and many states require a full-time operator to ensure the system is running safely.

Now, there is nothing there that is much more complicated than an automobile.  And the idea of everyone having their own steam-driven power plant on the roof of their house may or may not be a good one.     But there is nothing like this on the market today.   It's just too complex a system for something that is only just starting to see wide-spread acceptance.  

You could probably find a bench-top demonstration model, like what you would use in a science fair.   But it wouldn't create much electricity.   And if you were handy, and familiar with plumbing steam systems and so forth, you could probably build one yourself.   But not in a two-bedroom apartment.

Good question.

Answer 3

Check here:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?i...

You will find what you like!

Good luck!

Answer 4

I think you are going to have a big problem just because you are in an apartment.  That means, you don't really own the roof or the common areas.

So, where are you going to put it?