Stirling engine solar dish farms also seek to restart Detroit

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R. Colin Johnson -- EE Times -- (07/14/2009 8:46 PM EDT)

PORTLAND, Ore. — The solar power industry could help put Detroit back to work, according to Sandia National Laboratories and their commercial collaborators who plan to break ground next year on the first commercial Stirling engine-based solar energy collectors. The automotive supply chain can be used to make the collectors.

Based on prototypes at the Sandia National Laboratories' National Solar Thermal Test Facility (NSTTF), the patented SunCatcher solar dishes track the sun with parabolic mirrors that reflect light directly into the Stirling engines' combustion chamber, thereby focusing solar heat into electricity from the attached generator.

"Our engines and mirrors are being manufactured and assembled in the United States by what is essentially the existing automotive supply chain," said Sean Gallagher, a vice president at Tessera Solar and Stirling Energy Systems. "This is something that Detroit knows how to do very well. When we get into volume production, this emerging industry will be put our automobile workers back to work."

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