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This site is owned by Duane C. Johnson <redrok@redrok.com>.
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RED ROCK ENERGY
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Solar Power Heliostat Arrays.
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theenergydude
* LED3X Solar Tracker
A simple, accurate, low cost, single axis electronic solar tracker based on using green LEDs as photovoltaic light sensors.
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Acro Solar
The Acronym Finder
Air
Analemma
APRS
Arizona Solar Center
American Solar Energy Society
Ben Wiens
Bizarre Stuff
Bomin Solar
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Keith Burnett
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ClearDome Solar
CLFR
Colon
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Cooker
CRACKED
CREST
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Rich DeMartile
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DSIRE
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Edit+
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Electronic Goldmine
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Energy Planet
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EV
Event
Flight Simulator
For Sale
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Formulae
Four Solar
Free Energy
Fun Science Gallery
Leo Gerst
Greenpeace & PV
Heat Engine
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Helio Track
H-Ion
HomePower Magazine
HotBot
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HyperPhysics
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Jade Mountaim
Jim Barr
Junk Science
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Langley
LED Tracker
Links
ME3
Meteonorm
Midway
Midwest Renewable Energy Association
Misc1
Moshier
Mr. Solar
Mug
My Interests
Mylar
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Neat
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Otherpower
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Trak
Trough
up970331
up980301
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Weizmann Institute
David Wells
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Williamson
Wind & Sun
Zomeworks.
I Last edited this page on 20090316
Alternative energy systems for the home or small property owner who is interested in Natural Energy or Solar Power.
I want to use these web pages as a forum for:
- The interchange of ideas related to the production of natural energy.
- Heliostat (mirror) based concentrator solar collectors.
- Solar trackers.
- Electric vehicles (battery powered).
- Pneumatic vehicles (compressed air powered).
- Hybrid vehicles.
- Neat patents.
search
Search engines
google
interests
Interests
I have many interests ranging from amateur radio and astronomy to auto racing and mechanics. One general thread is the use of electronics and computers to devise low cost smart solutions to many of the problems I encounter.
information
Heliostat Information.
definitions
SOLAR DEFINITIONS:
HELIOSTAT or CENTRAL RECEIVER SYSTEM:
1. A heliostat is a two axis solar tracking mirror that reflects sunlight onto a fixed receiver.
2. Furthermore, the geometry between the Sun, Mirror, and Receiver are constantly changing throughout the day. (There is a special case, the coelostats, where light is sent along the polar axis and where the geometry is approximately fixed throughout the day.)
3. In general the mirror is aimed normal to the bisector between the sun and receiver.
Archimedes in ancient Syracuse.
mechanical
Early Mechanical Heliostats and Coelostats
Ok, and some modern ones for illustration.
heliostats
Heliostats, generally, reflect light onto a stationary target.
They cover a range of devices such as Coelostats and Siderostats.
However, we usually consider heliostats as having 1 mirror with coelstats having 2 or more mirrors.
coelostattype1
Type 1 coelostat:
1. Rotate the main mirror once in 24 hours around the polar axis directly in Right Ascension.
2. The main mirror has a seasonal "Tilt" in DEClination to reflect the sunlight along the polar axis.
3. The secondary mirror, if used, reflects light in any desired direction away from the polar axis.
coelostattype2
Type 2 coelostat:
1. Rotate the main mirror once in 48 hours around the polar axis in Right Ascension.
2. The main mirror in not tilted at all. The plane of the mirror is parallel with the polar axis. Sunlight is reflected away from the polar axis at an angle equal to the suns seasonal DEClination.
3. The secondary mirror is positioned to reflect light in any desired direction. This mirror has a seasonal positional movement as well as a seasonal tilt. (Note! The diagram says the secondary is fixed but it isn't. Either the main or secondary mirror mount must be moved to adjust the geometry seasonally.)
coelostattype3
Type 3 coelostat:
1. The Type 3 Coelostat has the main and secondary mirrors are set to exactly 45 degrees.
2. Rotate the main mirror once in 24 hours around the polar axis directly in Right Ascension. Note! This sends the light directly along the polar axis.
3. The secondary mirror has a seasonal "Rotate" in DEClination to reflect the sunlight along the polar axis.
4. The tertiary mirror, if used, reflects light in any desired direction away from the polar axis.
National Solar Thermal Test Facility. (T Pole Design)
Solar II Central Receiver. (T Pole Design)
practicalsolar
Practical Solar, Inc. (T Pole Design)
clfr
Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) (CLFR Design)
The University of Sydney School of Physics
This is the new kid on the block.
An interesting variation of a heliostat using linear movable mirror strips. This concept only tracks in one axis. In this case I believe it satisfies the definition of a heliostat because the second axis movement is not required. Movement of the image does occur along the line of the stationary receiver.
A truly new and unique design. This has the potential to make large heliostat systems truly cost effective. The design is highly scalable. In other words as the size goes up the component cost to power ratio, $/W, actually goes down.
T Pole heliostat costs go up as size increases mainly due to exponentially increasing bending moments in high winds.
The "Compact" part of the CLFR, of which they got their patent, stems from the method they use to aim the mirrors at one of two receivers at different times of the day.
hdsolar
HelioDynamics (LFR) Design
"LFR", Linear Fresnel Reflector, instead of CLFR because each mirror always aims at a single line receiver.
hinge
Hinge (Hinge design)
receiveraxis
Receiver Axis (Receiver Axis design)
HeliotrackSolar Heliostat: A device capable of reflecting sunshine to a stationary target throughout the day.(Receiver Axis Design)
dish
DISH:
A dish is a two axis solar tracking mirror that reflects sunlight onto a receiver, generally circular shaped, that is in alignment with the sun and the central axis of the mirror.
Sandia Dish
trough
TROUGH:
A trough is a solar tracking mirror, either one or two axes, that generally reflects sunlight onto a linear receiver that is perpendicular to and is in alignment with the sun and the central axis of the linear parabolic mirror. A variation is the use of linear lens elements.
troughns
Sandia North-South Axis Trough
troughpolar
Polar Axis Trough
furnace
SOLAR FURNACE:
One version of a solar furnace is the combination of a heliostat and a fixed dish.
Sandia Solar Furnace. (T Pole Design)
concepts
Heliostat design concepts 960301.
Absorptivity
Black Crystal
Chemistry
Complaint
Concepts
Costs
Cover
Efficiency
Emissivity
Fridge
Future
Greenhouse
Heliostat
Light Measurements
Lighting
Lumens
NREL
Phase Change Materials
Power
Radiometric & Photometric Terms
Reflectivity
Solar Spectrum
Solec
Stasis
Storage
Thermal Connection.
Thermal Properties of Materials.
up970331
Update of Heliostat arrays 970331.
Arrays
Computer
Costs
Description
Divergence
Front
Furnace
Lighting
Neat
Odeillo
Plan
Side.
up980301
Update of Heliostat arrays 980301.
1997
Axis
Bridge
Challenge
Computer
Converters
Costs
Cover
Deflandre
Diodes
Dish
Efficiency
Engine
Fresnel
Heliostat
Hinge
Horizontal
Richard J. Komp, Ph.D.
Mylar
Polar
PV
Sayre
Size
Software
Thermal
TPole
Tracker
Trough.
links
Links
How to View
These pages are best viewed using a proportional font such as "Courier New".
Most links have a description next to a thumbnail image.
The image can be clicked to see a larger version.
The description contains a link to the specific reference.
Some descriptions have more than one link.
Many links have a single word in very small sized characters next to them. These are used to find this location in the page. If you want to jump directly to that location in the page include that word in the URL: for that page. Here is an example to jump to this "link" text:
http://www.redrok.com/main.htm#links
see how the "#links" was added to the basic page URL:
| wells
*
"David N. Wells" <laseraxe@erols.com>
* The Northside Company.
* Davids concentrator is similar to the Russell patent# US4148564.
This is a Power Point slide presentation.
* The same thing in HTML.
| moshier
* Astronomy and numerical software source codes by * "Stephen L. Moshier" <steve@moshier.net>
* aa-56.zip Self contained Ephemeris Calculator.
This is a neat program that can be run as a subroutine. Its written in C.
| burnett
* Keith has written codes for the Position of the Sun.
They're based on page C24 of the 1996 Astronomical Almanac.
He presents it in the forms of Formulas, QBasic ( works with Power Basic ), and Excel 97 Spreadsheet.
* "Keith Burnett" <kburnett@btinternet.com>
| analemma
* The Analemma
Key to astronomical and solar tracking mathematics.
* Red Rock Analemma Page
A bunch of links to solar astronomical info.
| borealis
* Borealis Power Technology
They hold patents on an exciting now type of electric power generation technology called Power Chips.
They operate on the electron thermionic emmmision principal.
See: * Borealis on my patent page.
| pfts
* Power From The Sun
A very nice solar book on the net.
| mike
* Solar Mike's Photovoltaic web page.
I'm still alive but my personal website isn't. It took a lot of time to maintain and I've taken a job with Array Technologies, Inc. I did pick up the URL http://www.solarmike.com but have not done anything with it. Any specific questions...drop me an email
"Solar Mike, Michael Reed, Sales Manager" <mreed@wattsun.com>
Array Technologies, Inc.
3312 Stanford NE
Albuquerque, NM 87107, USA
PH: 505-881-7567
FX: 505-881-7572
URL: www.wattsun.com
| mrsolar
* Mr. Solar.
Your contact point for information, products and services about every aspect of solar, wind & water power.
| sspence
* "Steve Spence" <sspence@green-trust.org>
* green-trust.org
Steves website has a wealth of alternative energy topics.
| led3 redrok tracker
* Red Rock Energy
I make a simple, low cost, single axis electronic solar tracker based on using green LEDs as light sensors.
| dew
* Dew Point, dew.exe
I have a useful program for calculating and converting between Dew Point, Relative Humidity, and Ambient Temperature.
Click on this line to download the program.
parabola
| amsi
* Drawing a parabola with a T square.
| focallength
Parabolic Focal Length Calculations
The focal length and image size of a parabola can be calculated with some simple measurements.
Measure the Radius distance of the parabola from the rim to the central axis and Depth of the dish.
R = Radius
D = Depth
FL = Focal Length
S° = Solar diameter in degrees of arc. About 0.5°
I = Ideal Image Size formed by a perfect parabola.
Example:
The Radius of a 10' satellite dish in inches = 60"
Depth = 21"
R^2 / (D * 4) = FL
60"^2 / (21" * 4) = 42.9" Focal Length
TAN(S° / 2) * 2 * FL = I
TAN(0.5° / 2) * 2 * 42.9" = 0.37" in diameter
Of course a real 10' satellite dish is not nearly
that perfect. They have a focal zone diameter of
about 3".
The rule of thumb is the Ideal Image diameter of
the Sun is about 1% of the Focal Length.
|
| demartile
* "Rich DeMartile" <rich_demartile@prodigy.net> was kind enough to provide some CAD drawings on a method of producing a parabola. Thanks Rich.
* Rich also has posted a schematic of a solar tracker and mount based on a pair of CdS photo cells.
| chace
* Jeremiah Chace's web page.
* Jeremiah has a shareware program to plot parabolas. troughs8.exe
Click on this line to download the program.
* "Jeremiah Chace" <jeremiahchace@wildblue.net>
| sunflower
* Doug Wood
* "Sunflower" <fox@harbornet.com>
Doug makes very interesting low cost parabolic dishes. They are based on long strips of glass mounted on a truss frame.
* Solar Energy Return on Investment.
* Square dish solar concentrator designed for high intensity concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) space cells.
| teton
* Teton Engineering Inc.
A Tracking Solar Concentratorfor for the home experimenter.
This concentrator, based on 1 square foot mirror tiles, is the first solar system I studied. It was, I think, the one presented in Mother Earth News many years ago.
| ra
* Ra Energy FDN
The Solar Hydrogen Economy is the Gandhi strategy, the missing part to civilization's greater puzzle and the key to the elusive paradigm shift.
Raleigh Myers <ramyers@igc.org> describes an interesting off axis parabolic trough constructed from concrete.
| warrior
* The Energy Warrior
| nielsen mylar
* Nielsen Enterprises <http://www.mirrorsheeting.com/>
3019 S. 256th St.
Kent, WA. 98032
(253) 941-7281
They sell good quality reflective aluminized mylar in a variety of sizes.
| sohara
* Sohara. Directable Mirrors - A Better Way To Focus The Sun.
| beaty
* William Beaty
Infinitely large solar furnace.
| event
* Event Horizons.
* Ken Kolbly is working on heliostats.
| nick
* Nick Pine is expert at solar thermal calculations.
* Nick designs Solar Closets and Sunspaces and has an extensive FAQ.
* He has a program to kerf cut wooden ribs for parabolic troughs. kerf.bas
Click on this line to download the program.
* "Nick Pine" <nick@acadia.ee.vill.edu>
| air
* Jim Brown's main page.
* Air transfer solar collector on Jim's house.
| cooker
* Solar cookers.
| steveharris
* SUNSHINE TO DOLLARS By Steven Harris
* Reel time temperature measurements of his solar oven.
| spiral
* Spiral Concentrators by Steenblik
| sunspot
* SunSpot Making good use of the Sun.
Fresnel Solar Cooker Design
by Ed Norman
| cleardom
* ClearDome Solar cooking reflectors.
| mealy
* Webb Mealy's Solar Cooker
Webb has several nice videos of his project.
* An Excel to set mirror angles. WebbMealy1.xls
| newton
* C. Christopher Newton
This is a beautiful example of a Solar Dish Steam Turbine Electric Generator.
This was his masters thesis project.
Attached is a copy of his thesis paper which is on a concentrated solar thermal steam system.
In the appendices of the paper, you will find the diagrams for the steam turbine.
With the proper amount of steam supplied, the turbine is capable of 5 hp.
| suntenna
* Suntenna Solar Mosaic Basics Fresnel Concentrators
by Jim Mallos
| practical
* Practical Solar, Inc.
They have developed a new, proprietary concentrating solar power system (CSP system) to harness energy from the sun:
a small-scale heliostat system that can direct up to 300 square meters of sunlight onto a single square meter. This concentrated solar energy can be used to produce heat, light and power for a virtually unlimited number of applications, at only a fraction of the cost of other solar technologies.
| heliotrack
* Helio Track
Solar Heliostat: A device capable of reflecting sunshine to a stationary target throughout the day.
This is an example of a "receiver axis" heliostat.
| gerst
* Leo Gerst's Heliostats.
This is an example of an "in line" solat tracker driving a "T Pole" heliostat.
| rossen
* Erik Rossen's Mini-Heliostat page.
(Erik has extensive bookmarks to many subjects.)
| domestat
* Inflaitable Heliostat
by Gary Reysa
| ostergren
* The Heliostat Team
Dr. Warren Ostergren
* An interesting heliostat
with a gimbol mount, moved by weight shifting.
| zomeworks
* Zomeworks
Pasive Energy Products and Heliostats. A leader in the development and manufacture of passive energy products since 1969.
* Universal Track Rack™.
* A paper written by Steve Baer.
Heliostats--Sameshine vs Sunshine
| woodmill
* Otherpower
The Cutting Edge of Low Technology
* All Wooden Wind Generator
* Experiments
* Wonder Magnet
| elcheapo
* El Cheapo Passive Solar Tracker.
(Propane mass transfer activated).
Simillar to Zomeworks.
| poulek
* Traxle Poulek Solar Polar mount with tracker.
| wattsun
* Wattsun Solar Trackers
Wattsun Trackers provide you with more solar power for less money.
Your power is harvested in a smooth dawn to dusk flow.
Wattsun Trackers maximize your investment in solar power.
* And a bunch of solar data including Excel Spreadsheets.
* Excel spreadsheet to graphicly show the shadowing effects of multiple tracked panels. This one is for 40 degrees of latitude.
| smallpow
* Small Power Systems Trackstar
Small Power Systems is a company in search of answers to the world's energy and environmental Problems.
<George@smallpowersystems.com>
|
| thermed
* Thermal Energy Direct
Designers and Manufactures of Advanced Solar Systems. They make solar trackers
| windsun
* Wind & Sun
by Warren Lauzon.
| stracker
* Sun Tracking
These guys seem to have disappeared.
| sunlink
* Sun-Link Tracker
| solarsundial
* Solar Sundial Tracker
The Solar Sundial Tracker is an easy way to get more power out of your solar panels.
<info@solarsundial.com>
These guys seem to have disappeared.
| tag
* The Analog Guy Solar Trackers:
ST2-48V5A SINGLE & DUAL AXIS SOLAR TRACKER 56V 5A MAX
ST2-12V DUAL AXIS SOLAR TRACKER 18V 0.5A MAX
<info@theanalogguy.com>
One of my competiters.
| campatracka
* CampaTracka
Dave Harvey makes solar trackers loosly based on my LED5 low power solar trackers.
He uses mechanical relays to increase output current to 3 amps.
<dave@campatracka.com>
One of my competiters.
| solener
* SOLENER TRACKING SYSTEMS
One and two axis tracking systems which are now entering the stage of commercialisation. Grid-connected system incorporating two-axis tracking systems and high wind-speed protection.
| envirotech
* Envirotech's SSI-200W Grid-Tied Inverter
SSI, Smart Sine-wave Inverter.
Rated at 200W. However, it is not UL approved yet.
$289us
This inverter connects between a PV panel, or other power source, and the 120V 60Hz grid. It operates the PV panel at the MPPT, Max Power Point Tracking, mode to get the most energy transfer per day.
| jade
* Jade Mountain
Appropriate Technology For Sustainable Living
Over 6000 Products Professional Experience Since 1972.
| natural
* Natural Energy Systems, Inc.
Solar PV and Wind in White Bear Lake, MN.
(We live in the same town.)
| * Home Power Magazine
| * Renew Magazine
|
| me3
* Minnesotans for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ME3).
| nesea
* NESEA
Northeast Renewable Energy Association aims to strengthen the economy and improve the environment by bringing clean electricity, green transportation, and healthy, efficient buildings into everyday use.
| webring
* The Renewable Energy Webring.
| mrea
* Midwest Renewable Energy Association
Their Mission: The Midwest Renewable Energy Association is a nonprofit network for sharing ideas, resources, and information with individuals, businesses, and communities to promote a sustainable future through renewable energy and energy efficiency.
| ases
* American Solar Energy Society
is a national organization dedicated to advancing the use of solar energy for the benefit of U.S. citizens and the global environment.
| arizona
* Arizona Solar Center
Your source for information on solar energy in Arizona.
| dsire
* State Programs and Regulatory Policies Table.
| energyplus
* EnergyPlus
EnergyPlus is a new building energy simulation program for modeling building heating, cooling, lighting, ventilating, and other energy flows.
| nrel
* NREL
* National Renewable Energy Laboratory
* Solar Radiation Data Manual for Flat Plate and Concentrating Collectors.
* HOMER
The Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables.
| nasa
* NASA
Surface meteorology and Solar Energy Data Set (release 3)
| retscreen
*
Canadian based solar data.
| langley
* Surface Solar Energy Data Set
Monthly Averaged Regional Data.
This is a monthly solar energy data set for the whole earth. They have a lot of data about sizing and orientation for solar systems.
| meteonorm
* Meteonorm
Global Meteorological Database for Solar Energy and Applied Meteorology.
They sell a CD of world meteorological data with hourly resolution.
| psi
* PSI Paul Scherrer Institute.
| rredc
* RReDC
Welcome to the Renewable Resource Data Center.
| saic
* SAIC
* Solar Power Technologies
* Stretched Membrane Heliostats.
| cracked
* THE HAZARDS OF SOLAR ENERGY
by Donald E. Simanek
A very humorous treatise.
| crest
* CREST
Center for Renewable Energy and Sustainable Technology.
Note, Crest has had some problems migrating to a new URL address. If dificulties are encountered make sure the link starts with "http://sol.crest.org/...." instead of "http://solstice.crest.org/....".
| greenpeace
* Greenpeace
I don't agree with much of what Greenpeace stands for. However, they have commissioned a study of PV manufacturing plants for the future. This study has been well received.
This report proposes constructing large PV manufacturing plants to compete evenly with conventional fossil fuel power plants.
* Solar Energy: from perennial promise to comprehensive alternative.
It's a 63 page document in Adobe .pdf format.
| weizmann
* Weizmann Institute
Concentrated Sunlight Consortium.
| pix
* PIC
The Photographic Information eXchange.
| midway
* Midway Labs Inc.
* Concentrating photovoltaic concentrators.
* This is the most efficient and cost effective commercially available concentrating PV that I know of.
Unfortunately they may have gone out of business.
| scicenter
* Solar Electric Solutions Energy Efficiency specializes in designing and installing photovoltaic (PV) solar energy solutions, small or large, freestanding, or interconnected with the power grid.
* Midway Labs
A solar Fresnel concentrator.
| solarfocus
* Solar-Focus
| dnp
* DNP Group
Manufacturers of large Fresnel lenses in Denmark.
| egis
* EGIS SOLAR TRACKER
Intelligent Sun Tracking Heliostat Systems and heliostat solar illumination.
(One of my competitors.)
| trak
* | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |