Sun-tracking mirrors, or heliostats have been used for many years to create concentrated heat that can drive a turbine located inside a central solar tower. However, so far this technology was consider expensive and complex due to the need for
According to Thermata the "Suncaster Heliostat Pods" have several advantages:
- Heliostat pods electric motors and electronics are all self-powered via a solar panel (photovoltaic), hence no wires - reducing installation costs.
- Minimal surface preparation required — the Heliostats can be quickly installed on a roof or ground. They may be anchored using a ballast or screw anchor but require no structural support or foundations.
- Each heliostat can be automatically identified and calibrated over a wireless mesh network (using Zigbee technology).
- Each heliostat is smaller and self-configurable making for a lower cost per square meter solution.
In each Pod there are eight heliostats with a motor operated by two-watt photovoltaic solar panels. Just above each heliostat you can find four "diffusers" (small square mirrors). A high-definition camera located at a distance takes pictures of the diffusers and by using unique algorithms can determine the exact location and angle of the heliostat and optimize the required tilt.
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All this bares down to a substantial cost reduction in building and maintaining a solar power plant based on a mirror system. According to Thermata the technology it developed can save about 100 million dollars out of about 600 million dollars it will take to build a large scale solar power plant of this type.
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More information on the Suncaster Heliostat Pods can be found on Thermata's
website.
-TFOT previously covered many advanced solar technologies including the Australian “
EnviroMission” company and its large-scale solar tower capable of supplying electricity to 200,000 typical Australian homes. We also covered SunHopes - an innovative concept for harvesting solar energy in a cost-efficient, environmentally friendly way using
helium balloons.
