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A giant helium balloon, with top transparent while bottom is
made of shiny milar, shaped as a hyperbolic mirror facing
inward.
Concentrates sun, in order to heat a lightweigt strirling
engine hanging inside (made of lightweight composite
materials).
It won't be the most efficient, but since
it doesn't take up
land space, it can be set in (or rather flown from) any
location, could be made extremely large, and at a very low
cost. It could also be used to shadow desert areas in order to
allow them to grow trees on them.
Inflatable Solar Collectors (on youtube)
http://www.youtube....watch?v=kROgE4Jdm-k
[pashute, Feb 10 2011]
[link]
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This is pretty baked, just Google "inflatable solar
collector" and you'll get tons of links/video/etc.
You've added the helium and sterling engine part, but
I think floating would just make them harder to
correctly aim and switching from PV to sterling is
kind of standard.
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No! See link, and then read my idea again. It's not
inflatable. Its lighter than air. I'm half solving the
problem of roof space. |
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It uses helium, is a balloon, but is not inflatable? |
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Perhaps it could be constructed in a giant hangar full of helium so when complete it will be helium filled. |
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It is inflatable. But the ideas of inflatable solar
collectors which are found extensively on the web,
including a $1M angel funded company
(coolEarthSolar) have not included the idea of
floating them in air, and therefore are committed to
heavy structure and large land usage, which are both
costly, and hinder the growing of vegetation. |
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//No! See link, and then read my idea again. It's not inflatable. Its lighter than air. I'm half solving the problem of roof space.// |
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Yes! Read my anno again. As I stated your idea is unique, but what it adds is not actually beneficial. Yes it solves the problem of roof space, but at the cost of efficiency, due to loss of aiming, so it doesn't, as you'd need so many more for the same output. |
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It is like trying to fix a hole in a bucket by building a pump to get the water in faster. Or adding balloons to bicycles to make them lighter. Your attempting to solve one problem by adding a new larger problem. |
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Not true. Aiming can be achieved by 4 wires. It can
be inserted in a completely ball shaped balloon. Thus
it would not be affected by the wind. QED. |
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