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SunCatcher™ |
The Next Generation of
CSP Technology
Harnessing the sun’s energy affordably, while consuming very small amounts of our limited water resources, requires a breakthrough solution. The SunCatcher™ Solar Dish Stirling System is truly that new next generation CSP technology and represents a utility-scaleclean energy solution.
The SunCatcher™ is a proprietary solar-to-grid-quality electricity generation technology that has benefited from some $500 million in investment over the years. It is a 25-kilowatt-electric (KWe) solar dish Stirling system designed to automatically track the sun and collect and focus solar energy on to a power conversion unit (PCU), which generates electricity. The system consists of a solar concentrator in a dish structure that supports an array of curved glass mirror facets. The conversion process involves a closed, high-efficiency four-cylinder reciprocating Solar Stirling Engine using an internal working fluid that is recycled through the engine. Solar heat pressurizes the internal working fluid and this gas in turn powers the Solar Stirling Engine.
Today’s SunCatcher™ is the result of over a decade of innovative engineering and validation testing, with hundreds of thousands of hours of on-sun testing on each major sub-system, and over 50,000 hours on-sun testing for the complete system. |
Re-Designed |
Re-Engineered
Prototype Systems of today’s SunCatcher™ System have been operating for more than two decades. During this time the critical elements of the system, the PCU, and dish concentrator have been redesigned for greater efficiency and performance. It has recorded an aggregate hundreds of thousands of hours of on-sun testing on all sub-systems, and over 50,000 hours of complete system on-sun testing at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The SunCatcher™ has furthermore been modified and optimized for large scale manufacturing and deployment.
SunCatcher™ Highlights
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World record for highest efficiency conversion of solar energy into grid electricity |
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Least cost–best fit solar solution available today |
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The only water needed is to wash its mirrors! |
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Will be in full-scale production in 2010 |
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The SunCatcher™ Electric Power System
The SunCatcher™ is a rare combination of breakthrough engineering and proven technology that can deliver power in the most demanding environments. The SunCatcher™ generates 55,000 - 60,000 kWh of utility-scale grid-quality electricity per year by concentrating the sun’s energy by a factor of 1,300 times and holds the world record for highest sun-to-grid solar efficiency, converting it into clean, renewable power. The SunCatcher™ is modular enough to deliver today’s grid quality electricity at 1.5MW and scale easily to 1000MW and beyond, as needed to meet tomorrow’s growing power needs.
Public-Private Partnerships | 30 Years of Collaboration
In 1978, engineers at Ford Motor Company began developing designs of a solar-powered Stirling engine. Through the years, companies like McDonnell-Douglas, Boeing and Southern California Edison worked to improve the technology and design. In 1996, SES, our sister company, based in Phoenix, Arizona USA, was created to develop this technology and bring it to market. SES worked in a cooperative public-private partnership with Sandia National Laboratories and US Department of Energy. Since then, and following NTR’s $100 million investment, the design has been optimized and technology perfected to create a product that is ready to for high-volume low-cost production to be deployed on a global scale. |
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