Mechanical Systems to Transfer Solar Energy Into Other Useful Forms Of Energy?

@thebigk • Oct 21, 2024

Oct 21, 2024

1.1K

In the city I live, the temperature goes as high as 46 degree Celsius. I'm wondering if there are any mechanical systems to transfer solar energy into other useful forms of energy.

Such system could prove revolutionary in regions where the sun shines brighter 😉 .

Pardon my ignorance if I've forgotten any obvious systems.

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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • May 11, 2009

Anyone? This idea has potential to make you a billionaire.
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • May 11, 2009

Heat engines 😀

Though, 46 degrees is not high enough to provide adequate power. Solar concentrators and furnaces work the best in this case.. whether its used for heat engines or steam power.

There are always good ideas out there. Unfortunately, the practical implementation is not that easy. Its usually those who are able to secure large investments that are able to carry out these sort of ideas.
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Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • May 11, 2009

Let's not worry about large scale energy transformation. Farmers can benefit a lot if we could work out something to power their water pumps in summer.
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sauravgoswami

@sauravgoswami-UAfTlI • May 12, 2009

we can use Photo-acoustic spectroscopy to conver solar energy in sound and motion,it had been done in past though not in large scale!!!
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Rohan_sK

@rohan-sk-7ZbDkK • May 12, 2009

I would like to elaborate on the systems mentioned above
The two sytems mentioned above are the main two mechanical systems converting solar energy into power.
I would like to elaborate a little on the solar concentrators more.
The solar energy available is not intense enough to produce tempreatures of the order to cause phase changes in the working fluids to run the systems mentioned above.
Thus we use solar concentrators whiich are specially profiled or shaped highly reflecting mirrors to focus the diversely dispersed solar energy on to a small surface area, so the tempreatures obtained are high enough due to increased intensity of heat flux. They are called SOLAR REFLECTORS. The most common reflector / concentrator is the PARABOLIC TROUGH or DISH which is a mirror bearing a parabolic shape or profile all along its length.and focusses the incident sunrays on the collector tube at the centre of the trough. There is water inside the tubeswhich gets heated up producing superheated steam as the tempreatures on the tube reaches 500 C to 650 C . This steam is used to drive the turbine which drives a generator producing electricity.They are called SOLAR TURBINES.
There are FRESNEL LENSES AND FRESNEL MIRRORS which focus sunlight to porduce tempreatures upto 2000C to 3500 C on the collector tubes. They are used to supply heat to PROCESS HEATING and RUNNING AIRCONDITIONING PLANTS of industrial and commercial establishments.
Also FRESNEL LENSES are used to heat up cylinder of STIRLING ENGINES to supply heat input for the isochoric heating and isothermal expansion processes of the cycle ( The engine runs on Stirling cycle) This power producedd is used to run generators which inturn produce eleectricity.We can have them of smaller capacities to be used on small households or farms to suffiice their power requirements s they are quite compact.
The SOLAR HEAT PUMPS are essentially refrigeration systems running on Vapor Absorption principle, and the solar energy is used here during the heat input process of the cycle. These systems are using ammonia/water or Lithium bromide as refrigerant fluids.
Also there are vertical chimneys set up with thermal absorption material on their exterior. These are two way chimneys with air filled in the inside. Due to heating of the air by solar energy the natural convection drives heavier air upwards causing a wind flow fro the surrounding area to the place osf set up. THis gives a VENTILATION effect in the area of installation which is a small i=commercial or house hold , without expenses on energy input otherwise on forced draft sytem.
Apart from these are the common solar cookers solar water heaters, solar distillation plants, solar ponds etc to name a few of the systems harnessing solar energy.
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gohm

@gohm-F3UUpP • May 12, 2009

solar towers
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • May 12, 2009

Small scale? Well.. mini solar furnaces would help with cooking at least. That'll save some electricity and gas.
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gohm

@gohm-F3UUpP • May 12, 2009

I know someone who built a solar oven, it was fun.
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sauravgoswami

@sauravgoswami-UAfTlI • May 12, 2009

well it is practised in Austrailia to generate electricity,and solar ovens and water heaters are common in India,but the major problem with solar systems is , they cant be used during rainy or winter seasons!!
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shalini_goel14

@shalini-goel14-ASmC2J • May 12, 2009

As far as I know Science, I guess once energy is trapped then it can be converted easily into ther forms by using different mechanisms right? Coming to the thing of cities having high temparatures or high quantity of sun rays can be trapped efficiently if solar panels could be used for this. So thing is making a more efficient solar panels that can trap major amount of sun rays.
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Ashraf HZ

@Ash • May 13, 2009

You are right, the dream is making those panels efficient. Theres roughly 1KW of power (heat and light combined) per meter square of sunlight that shines on the ground 😉
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