TechnologyDownload
Click to download the Prometheus System Calculator v1.0.4
For maximum access, the program is written to work in Open Office Spread Sheet (Calc) (though many other spread sheet programs can read the format as well).
Here you will find the steps used to design a Prometheus-100 type solar concentrator at any scale.
Though nothing more than basic arithmetic is needed to build a Prometheus-100, Vesta, Helios, or Batant, when a construction guide is available, a bit more mathematics is necessary to redesign, optimize or build at a different scale.
Fortunately, included in this guide is a small Open Source (GNU GPL) program that takes care of most of this mathematics business for you.
The Prometheus System is a simple technique to build a solar concentrator of essentially any size. Small flat mirrors are used to make individual reflectors placed on straight rows. The whole machine rotates to face the sun, and each row rotates to hit the focal point.
The advantages of this system are:
There is no parabolic bending of metal.
The focal point remains fixed relative to the ground.
The centre of gravity of the machine never moves from the central support post.
Reflectors based on simple mirror
Construction requires no highly specialized measurement tools or skills.
For now we refer you to the construction of the Prometheus-100, which describes all the central ideas; and the Batant Construction Guide, which has drawings for the the construction steps of a small Prometheus like machine. When time permits we will make new generalized drawings for designing a Prometheus-X number of reflectors, and whatever reflector size.
Other construction material is also possible, bamboo seems promising for the reflector rows. Feel free to experiment as much as possible.
Whatever your construction method and materials, some basic calculations will be the same for any Prometheus like solar concentrator. Notably, the distance between each reflector and the focal point, the distance to the whole’s for the control cable, the angle of each reflector on it’s row for some angle of the sun (and a comparison with some other sun angle), is all very useful to know before hand. The Prometheus System Calculator (free software under GNU GPL) calculates all these things for you, to resolve not only basic questions about the machine instantaneously for mental experimentation, but also determine the precise measurements in the final design.
For maximum compatibility the program is written to work in Open Office Spread Sheet (Calc).
Click to download the Prometheus System Calculator v1.0.4
For maximum access, the program is written to work in Open Office Spread Sheet (Calc) (though many other spread sheet programs can read the format as well).