January 2005

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ALBUQUERQUE, NM - The last of five additional 25 kW solar dish/Stirling engine electricity generators will be installed at Sandia National Laboratories’ national solar test facility here this month.

Together with a sixth dish prototype installed early last year, and after systems check and replacement of some motor parts, the 150 kW system is expected to be completed next month, according to David J. Slawson, chairman and CEO of Stirling Energy Systems (SES), Phoenix, AZ, designer of the Stirling engine. The mirrors were designed in-house by Sandia researchers.

Each 38 ft. diameter mirror consists of 82 smaller mirrors. Sandia project leader Chuck Andraka says the total system is the largest array of solar dish-Stirling engines in the world today. The six units are designed to work as a single power plant but each operates automatically, starting up each morning and shutting down at night after tracking the sun during the day without operator assistance. Solar-to-electricity conversion efficiency can reach 30%, better than any other solar technology, according to Bob Liden, SES executive vice president.

Sandia and SES researchers will be experimenting with the unit in coming months to smooth out whatever kinks might crop up. “It’s one thing to have one system that we can operate, but it’s a whole other thing to have six that must work in unison,” says Andraka.

The cost for each of the six prototypes is about $150,000. SES projects the cost will come to less than $50,000 once volume production is underway, producing electricity at costs competitive with conventional power technology.

Liden says an 11 square mile solar-Stirling power farm could provide as much as electricity as the Hoover Dam, and a farm measuring 100 miles by 100 miles in the Southwest could provide enough electricity to power the whole country. Contacts: Stirling, Robert Liden, 602/957-1818, rliden@stirlingenergy.com; Sandia, Chris Burroughs (media), 505/844-0948, coburro@sandia.gov; Chuck Andraka 505/844-8573, ceandra@sandia.gov.