Image from Wired Magazine.
(Hat tip Bankelele)
According to this IHT blog post of daily briefings from Davos
Those of you who remember Bill Gross of Idealab (roaring 90’s)will be excited to know that he started a company called energy Innovations. They are planning to introduce a solar energy concentrator that will cost $450 dollars, and will be mass produced in China.
There was a great article about him in Wired magazine last year. One of the caveats about the solar energy concentrator is that it was known to catch fire. check it out here. For more info on how the concentrator works, click here.
The challenge for Energy Innovations’ engineers was to keep a grid of 25 mirrors focused on a single point as the sun travels across the sky - and to do it cheaply. The goal: control each mirror independently without requiring separate motors for each mirror.
The key: a surface - based on a mathematical curve called the conchoid of Nicomedes - that dictates the position of each mirror. The surface, sampled at 25 points, is represented in the Sunflower by a grid of ball bearings attached to a swinging frame.
I am still very excited about the prospect of their innovation, it makes solar energy adoption affordable and if they have figured out all the kinks in the design of the concentrator…get ready for a paradigm shift in the solar enegy sector - worldwide. People will be/are already warming up to the solar idea very very quickly.
Specifically for Africa:First of all, the concentrator can be bought as part of a co-op project. Combine it with a water pump, and you have a way of pumping water from either a borehole or a small dam. Add drip irrigation (You might need a second solar concentrator for that) and you have increased productivity despite the lack of rains. Other applications abound, and are too numerous for me to get into now.
If Africa gets to the point that we can have more grid tied solar systems this would fit right in. Remember the post i did on hygridding for Kenya? Check out what energy innovations site is saying about grid tied systems in the US, and what the company does.
We have begun our quest with a major R&D effort aimed at delivering a system for flat-roofed, grid-tied commercial buildings in North America by 2006.
Steves’ got me stumped, so i am passing this on to you…Where is this?
Be sure to check out Kikuyu moja for more pics, see if you can tell where his latest pic is from...What are we going to call this? photo merry-go-round?
Update: It is St. Andrews, steve is that their website? and how did you get the architects sketch?
Acolyte wins this round!
Link
$280 dollars though…ouch.
Link to the Bio Design site
Our DIY Solar technique allows the self-assembly of low cost pv panels to power radios, torches, etc so allowing the replacement of dry cells which are often too expensive for the poor.
As experience is gained, much more becomes possible with the solar charging of mobile phones and car batteries, water pumping, cotton sprayers, etc
You can request pdf’s on the techniques from biodes@tiscali.co.uk
Afrofem answered this one very quickly: Car park at Sarit Centre.
At the Animal Orphanage in Nairobi.
Happy New Year!!! Wow. Now that it’s all over, I have time to think about my very simple holiday seasons growing up in Kenya (relative to what I witness now). For my sisters and I, the best thing was going to “Deacons” or “Njiiris” with my dad, to buy some new holiday duds. The four of us almost always ended up with identical dresses (in different sizes). Boy, was that great! Then we would go to “Bata” or “Tiger” and buy shoes. Since my dad showed up on Christmas eve, most of the sizes would be sold up, and occassionally, one had to walk away with a shoe size a tad tight, just to have something. These new treasures were not to be unveiled until Christmas day, when all the neighborhood kids would come out to show off their newest acquisitions. All of us kids would then size each other up, trying to decide who was the “smartest”. After church, we would go home and enjoy a sumptous meal…chapos, pilao, kuku, etc etc.I think about those days with great nostalgia. I never even knew that I needed to buy gifts for anyone (not that I had a dime to my name). As long as my father showed up a day or two before christmas, life was good. Here, I see kids stressing about what to buy their parents; people have christmas shopping lists a stressful mile long. I still don’t get it!
At the end of the day, we kids went home and played in the dirt and were just kids. The new clothes and shoes were fast forgotten, and the new school year threatened….
