energy

Parabolic Solar Energy Collector & Generator

[sun's energy vaporizes working fluid, driving turbine]

[Summary & Motivation] [Community] [Specifications] [Issues] [Contacts] [Pictures]

Summary & Motivation	Project Initiator: Bethel Business and Community Development Center (BBCDC) / Peace Corps Volunteer Start Date: 2001 Projected Completion Date: Planned return to Lesotho in January 2006 Current Status: Active (Individual working on developing fluids system at MIT) Ivan Yaholnitsky, the founder of the Bethel Business and Community Development Center, has perfected several different ways to harness the sun's energy to do useful work, especially cooking. One of his largest cookers is made of steel and reflective aluminum, and it is used to bake bread. The cooker is in the shape of a parabola, and the uncooked loaves are placed into a black pipe located at the focal point of the parabola. All of the sun's energy is concentrated on the tube, and the bread cooks in a very short time. As a Peace Corps volunteer stationed in the nearby village of Shalane, Matt Orosz saw firsthand Ivan's solar parabola. During Amy Smith's D-Lab class, Matt worked with a team to perfect the manufacturing process of the parabola. The shape and construction was greatly improved, and Matt started looking at ways to get the parabola's harnessed energy to be used to generate power. In 2004, a team in the mechanical engineering capstone class at MIT (2.009) took on the task of developing the parabola into a working solar pump. The result was a single fluid heater that successfully drove a piston in and out. Two members of that team, along with Matt, returned to Lesotho in January of 2005 to implement a prototype at Bethel Business and Community Development Center. With additional funding from the MIT IDEAS competition, Matt has been working on developing a multi fluid system capable of generating steam to drive a turbine-based electric generator, Since Lesotho receives over three hundred days of sunshine per annum, any solar solution such as this parabola is perfectly applicable. [top]
Community	Currently, the parabola is being used as a demonstration piece at the Bethel Business and Community Development Center in the Phamong region. Once the design is perfected, plans could be distributed to several rural communities. [top]
Specifications	Must be locally manufacturable Must generate electricity to suit a rural village's needs Should be optimized to follow sun's trajectory [top]
Issues	Solar parabolas have been used for baking bread in the past, but the energy application is original. Help is needed in the following areas: Analyzing fluidic system to determine best substances to use. Developing electrical system. [top]
Contacts	Project Leader: Matt Orosz MIT Contact: Matt Orosz <mso@MIT.edu> ATS Contact:   Website (If applicable): IDEAS Competition (Winner in 2005 contest) [top]
Pictures	PICTURES Description (Name) [Date] Download Solar Parabola Photo Album Several pictures of different solar parabolas in use at BBCDC, including the remains of the double parabola which was constructed by the MIT team in 2005. (M. Zedler) [9.11.05] *.html (Link)  [top]

*.pdf - Portable Document File / *.doc - Document (Microsoft Word) / *.jpg - Joint Photographic Experts Group (Browser) / *.zip - WinZip Compressed File (WinZip)

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