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how effective would it be to concentrate sunlight on the hot side of a
Stirling engine? it seems like this would heat the hot side to
hundreds of degrees hotter than the cool side (ambient air temperature).

wouldn't this be more efficient than photovoltaic technology or using
sunlight to generate steam to drive a turbine?
(as described at http://www.energylan.sandia.gov/sunlab/index.html)

Obviously this would only be remotely viable in direct sunlight.

Thanks,
Amit

In Around the World by Stirling Engine there is a picture of me standing in front of such an engine on Flamingo Avenue in Las Vegas. It certainly is an idea that can work.

There was an article in Discover Magazine for August in which the people from idealab are useing solar powered Stirling engines to generate electricity at the cost of one dollar for one watt. After reading the article it really got me excited considering the potential for the future use of Stirling engines and solar power. Any comments on this development would be most apriciated specially on the design of the Stirling engine which the inventors say they came up with using a special software and costs only a hundred dollars.

I saw a web page about three years ago with a Stirling at the focus of about a 30 ft parabolic reflector. I do not remember any spec's, at all, but the problem is getting an appropriate engine for the app. Many years ago in Mother Earth magazine, a man in Palm Springs used an array of decorative mirror tiles focused on a refrig. condensor to generate steam for a engine slaved to an A/C compressor. If that can be done I am sure a Stirling would work fine, again, if you could find a good, efficient engine.

try solar absorbtion panels: modern ones absorb 90% available radiation - this can raise air temp to 250 deg C on sunny days, but also works on cloudy days as infra red is also absorbed.

http://www.stirlingenergy.com/breaking_news_photos.htm

25 Kw per unit

w Prs. Bush even...

Check out Scientific American, Sept 2006, p62-64 "A Phoenix company called Stirling Energy Systems announced that it is planning to build two large solar-thermal power plants in southern California. The company signed a 20 year power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison which will buy the electricity from a 500-MW solar plant to be constructed in the Mohave desert. Stretching across 4,500 acres, the facility will include 20,000 curved dished mirrors, each concentrating light on a Stirling engine each about the size of an oil barrel. The plant is expected to begin operating in 2009.... [more on follow-up larger projects]"

Hopeful?

Erl in London