Statements
The future energy consumption will double up to the year 2020 (numbers from the IEA). Especially in second and third world countries, the disposition of energy is one of the most important premises for a sustainable industrial development. The enormous demand for energy will challenge decision makers and politicians all around the world to search for new solutions.
For climate, environment, and security reasons and due to the limited amount of fossil resources it will be no longer neither acceptable nor possible to generate all the required energy from fossil or nuclear fuels. An energy-mix for the world energy supply has to be found and implemented which introduces more and more renewable resources.
Solar energy production has been identified to play a key role in the global future energy supply. Technologies for solar energy generation are available and ready for large scale implementation. However, they are still considered to be high risk ventures since the investment costs per kW installed capacity are usually higher than for conventional power plants. On the other hand the "solar fuel" is for free during the lifetime of the plant.
Solar Dish-Stirling Systems are small power generation sets, typically 10 to 50 kWel. They utilize a parabolic dish solar concentrator that focuses the solar energy onto a receiver where it is absorbed and transferred to the Stirling engine/generator. The use of Stirling engines for this application is advantageous due to their high efficiencies, high power densities and their potential for long-term, low-maintenance operation.
- Dish-Stirling technology is today the most efficient of all solar power plants in converting solar radiation into electricity. With its steel parts, engine and tracking system, the Dish-Stirling system is much comparable to that of cars but significantly simpler
- Dish-Stirling systems represent a technology which, due to its modularity, is very flexible and could be built as single stand-alone or grid connected unit or grouped together in medium size plants with outputs up to tens of MWel
Initiative
Stirling Sun Power International (SSPi) GmbH has been founded as a management holding with the aim to initiate series production of this new solar electric generating technology in qualified countries. Thus within a short period of time, low-cost, clean, environmental-friendly, renewable electricity supply can be offered in domestic but also in foreign markets.
A two phased business approach is foreseen to set up series production of a 10 and 25 kW solar dish-Stirling unit to reduce system manufacturing cost to such a level that a worldwide market introduction can be started under consideration of economic viability.