Solar Notes

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These are random scratchpad notes that will be structured later into coherenet sections.

Micro and macro environments for Solar
Micro environments like residential homes makes it more difficult to safely generate solar energy.

Fresnel lens array mounted on single metal grid
Take the fresnel solar furnace idea from SolarLinks and instead of an array of reflective mirrors(mounted on metal grid) spanning 4x4m or 16square meters setup an array of sixteen 1x1m Fresnel lenses over 4x4m square.

Each fresnel lens on the metal grid focusses its energy on a mini boiler(16 in total). All the boilers are connected to one central boiler/heat exchanger. It would be more cost effective and simpler to use mirror arrays instead of 16 fresnel lenses but mirror arrays are extremely dangerous in small enclosed micro-environments such as residential homes. They are more suitable for open areas around which a designated danger zone can be mapped such as farms or plots. For a 4meter focus point fresnel mirror array, a radius of 8m around the mirror array is needed to avoid being roasted.

If the mirror arrays are at an offset angle to the sun a burning hotspot will be created on the side of the soil in a radius of 8meters, instead of on the central boiler.

With 16 fresnel lenses mounted on the metal grid, each 1x1m lens would only be a danger in a 2meter radius. Focusing the metal grid on the sun would result in each fresnel lens focusing its energy on its boiler. Thus only one pan/tilt control mechanism would be needed for the metal grid, as opposed to sixteen control mechanisms.

Array of Fresnel lenses on roof
In a micro environment place a series of 1x1m fresnel lenses on a roof, each focusing its energy on a small boiler. All the boilers are connected with piping.