Solar Fire P32: 32 sqare meter Solar Concentrator
February 6, 2011, Rajkot, India
The Solar Fire P32 is a recently developed solar concentrator designed for small industries and traditional practices. It’s completion was the result of the cooperation between three energies.
- Design by SiSustainable
- Fabrication process by Tinytech
- Simulation and optimization by SiSustainable and Energy Vagabonds
Mr. V. K. Desai created his small business, Tinytech Plants, www.tinytechindia.com, in 1982, at the age of 40. Since then, he has sold, in 90 countries around the world, tiny machines without patents or copyright (oil mills, decorticators, solar cookers, traditional sugar plants...). He strives to create technologies to help villagers, farmers, and families regain local autonomy. A central piece of this puzzle is energy, which he has been developing at the small scale. He has developed wind, domestic biogas, and solar concentrators, energies available nearly everywhere and should be easily accessible to all. He has carried out dozens of experiments and developed numerous commercial products which he encourages people to copy.
Eerik Wissenz is co-founder of www.solarfire.org and www.sisustainable.com. He studied mathematics, is autodidact in solar energy, and has a strong interest in decentralized living and politics. For him, local access to solar energy is an important key for a just and sustainable world. In 2006 he quit his studies in Canada to attempt to develop and freely diffuse Solar Fire – an Open Source solar technology originating in Canada and developed in Mexico – what the villagers of Oaxaca would call Fuego Solar. In India has developed Solar Fire to the commercial level in cooperation with Tinytech, with the goal of sparking the autonomous spread of the technology from city to city, village to village, wherever the sun shines and energy is of need. For this, a simple, cost-effective but powerful, high-temperature design is required. He has traveled through the America’s, Europe and India in this quest.
Arnaud and Robin – Energy Vagabonds, www.energiesvagabonds.org, on route around the world to study as much energy culture as possible. They left their homes in France 8 months ago with bags on the back and camera’s in the hand. They are both nearing the end of their engineering studies: Arnaud studies Thermal Energy Systems and Robin Mechanics and Design. They have visited around 50 energy projects in 14 countries in Europe, the Middle-East and Asia. They have traveled mostly by hitch-hiking – taking the plane only once from Lebanon to India as no other option existed. In France they had read an article about Mr. Desai’s work in S!lence magazine written by Eva Wissenz and so contacted Mr. Desai to propose an extended stop at Tinytech Plants to study his machines in more detail. Next they will retake the trail around India, Nepal, towards Japan and finally return to Europe by the Trans-Siberian rail road. They will edit all the footage they have taken and share their experience in a film.
What is Solar Fire?
Solar Fire is a low-tech, high-power solar concentrator that has been built at many scales in Canada, Mexico, Cuba, France, Burkino-Faso, Mali, Texas, India, and Kenya, and work is in progress in Haiti.
The goal is to have a cost-effective solar concentrator, compared to burning coal and biomass, to fulfill three objectives: reduce deforestation and pollution, increase energy autonomy, and provide an energy source at the scale of traditional practices and small industries.
In 2009 Eerik and Eva Wissenz designed the Solar Fire Prometheus System, used to build a concentrator of roughly 9 square meters at Tinytech Plants, Rajkot, India. Though an interesting design for cottage industries, most existing small industries are based on a bit more power. So, a 32 square meter concentrator, the Solar Fire P-32, was developed over 2010 to answer this current need.
The Energy Vagabonds arrived almost by accident, if you believe in accidents, right for the final construction phase, and have been an immense help in completing the machine.
How does it work?
The Solar Fire P32 is a vertical concentrator, focusing the sun’s light on a boiler that is fixed, relative to the ground. Building requires no parabolic bending of metal pieces at all. No advanced tools or knowledge that are not found in an average metal working shop are required to build, install and maintain Solar Fire.
The basic principle is that of a magnifying glass that can focus the suns light onto a small point. The differences are that the Solar Fire P32 uses mirrors and is a lot bigger than a magnifying glass. Though many things can be put in the focal point, the model shown here is fitted with a boiler to produce high pressure steam.
The Solar Fire P32 is composed of 360 normal flat mirrors, each 15x60cm and 2mm thick. All the mirrors reflect the light onto our boiler. Each flat mirror is slightly curved with a triangle device fitted to the back: this allows further concentration so the machine can pass into the category of high concentration without adding significantly more cost. The structure is made of common steel lengths.
The applications?
Testing is currently being done, but the expected performance is 15 kilowatts of steam energy in broad daylight. This steam energy can be used directly to purify large quantities of water, boil milk, produce edible oils, make charcoal for terra-pretta, bake bricks, make paper, recycle materials, and anything requiring heat.
The steam can also drive a steam engine to directly power a water pump, oil and grain mills, cotton spinning, juice presses, or any (stationary) application requiring mechanical power. With direct power (no electricity) such systems are easy for villagers to install and maintain.
Each concentrator is an autonomous source of energy (a sort of solar energy outlet) that can provide energy independence from fossil fuels and greatly reduce dependence on biomass.
Electricity?
Solar Fire is not designed with electricity in mind but rather to replace fires of biomass and coal, specifically in developing countries.
However, the energy can also be transformed into electricity by a steam engine and generator for lighting, recharging mobile phones, etc.
With the Solar Fire P-32, if the steam is converted to mechanical power and then electricity the result should be about 1.5 to 3 kw of electricity (testing will be performed shortly). So, only a small part of our steam energy can be converted to electricity (at the small scale). However, when used locally this “waste heat energy” from the steam engine can be easily used for boiling, drying fruit, heating spaces, pasteurizing, and so on. When we consider these secondary applications, the majority of the waste steam energy need not be wasted.
Eerik and Eva Wissenz
