Large solar arrays, but are there individual units?

[time]

I have read of dishes like the Stirling Energy Systems in Phoenix with
a big array. I was wondering if anyone had used a 5 foot home sat.
dish (for TV) and converted it to power generation? Also the tracking
of the dish could be controled by telescope star tracker. Is there a
Stirling engine that would work with this kind of arrangement?

[stan.hornbaker]

No one has done this as far as I know. It would be an interesting project. There are no 'off the shelf' Stirling engines suitable for such an application.

Two or three years ago there was an organization proposing to produce such a setup with approx. 250W output for $250 per unit when in production. They couldn't get the R&D and startup funding and the idea went away in favor of other projects.

[prashanth58in]

Well Tom by the time I,ve tried to answer your question I,m pretty sure lots of folks have given credible answers to this one.I,m tempted to help you out on this one though.On "trawling" the web i,ve come across a brilliant website put up by an equally brilliant and a very well resourced group going by the name of Schlaich Bergermann Und Partner Gbr (structural consulting engineers)who are very well known for the famous Solo 161 brand of Stirling engine which can run on a very wide variety of fuel sources.The punch line is that this unit is mated to the focal point of a computerised tracking solar dish antenna. Here are some relevant notes on the unit that i quote off their literature. Dish dia 8.5m, projected area 56.5Sqm2 controlled by a servo motor from a pc, microcontroller using Interbus for the Data transfer with option of using a remote. The engine a solo 161 single acting ,90degree V,giving a projected power of 9.6kW at an estimated gas(Helium)temp of aprox 650 degrees @ a pressure of 0-150 bar.For further details you may look them up @ www.sbp.de and an em @ w.schiel@wde.de I feel it is a "must see" site for all Stirling enthusiasts esp for solar enterpreneurs/agencies. A close look at the solo 161 Stirling is also stongly suggested.hope this answers most if not all of your query. Bye n have a nice day!(:-)