During lunch 2 weeks ago, I brought up the idea of harnessing solar energy via photo-voltaic cells so they could be used to run air conditioning units. At first there was dead silence at the table; that was followed shortly thereafter by the guys at the table shaking their heads and a brief discussion as to why it wouldn't work. Only one colleague thought about it and by the end of lunch hesitatingly agreed there might be a small, remote possibility that it could work.
I emailed the same idea to Rocket Jonessome weeks ago, but he's been too busy building rockets, going to the Opera and writing programs to even respond to my idea. Humph!
Well, since VW asked me to keep her posted on what I find I went forth and searched. It seems that Matteran Energy has worked through the idea and has built a working model. By using a far-cheaper thermal-collection technology to heat a synthetic fluid, with a very low boiling point (around 58°F), they are able to create enough steam to drive a specially designed turbine in a fluid-circuit system, which converts heat into electricity.
Go and check out their animated design for the visual of how they do it. See, I'm not crazy after all!
Eeek! I wasn't blowing you off, because that would mean that I remember the email. I'm sorry, but it completely slipped my mind.
My apologies. I'll go dig through old email now.
Posted by: Ted at August 15, 2006 04:52 AMIt's possible, but I haven't seen it done in a way that's feasible yet -- in other words, if I make you a window unit that cools using solar, but you have to pay $10,000, there's not much market there. Even in that sample, they describe possible concepts without producing a feasible model...yet. Sure, I think we'll get there, but we're not there yet.
Posted by: Ogre at August 15, 2006 08:40 AM