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Home > Archive > Alternative Power sources > January 2006 > Solar Ponds
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| So I am guessing that a number of you have heard of solar ponds and Im
not simply refering to them for the fact of hot water or heating
purposes, Im refering to them for the express purpose of generating
electricity (although not limited to that).
I am wondering what y'all think of them? I think I have some slight
modifications that could improve their efficiency and make it viable.
I'm sure that a number of you have seen this article or others like it:
http://motherearthnews.com/library/...0_KW_Solar_Pond
150 KW is alot of electricity! I've read other articles about people
who have gotten the temps to 109 degrees C (228 F) which is pretty
amazing. I think though that it is inefficient to have it in an actual
round pond shape. I think it would be better to have more like a trough
with the same overall surface area but with it long like that you could
actually do several things to improve its use now. For one thing you
could now put sterling engines in with one side actually sitting in the
hot water and then have the other side having cool air blown accross it
from earth tubes (you know, the long conduits that you draw cool air
through and it comes out at like 55 degrees) so you are creating a
large tempurature differential causing the engine to spin quicker. I
think you could also have water pipes running through the bottom of the
hot water where the water in the pipe did not mix with the water in the
pond but the pond heated the pipe and the pipe then ran to a hot water
heater or something.
I kind of figure with my house being setup for efficiency like I plan
it to be it will use a fraction of the power that most houses use. If a
1 3/4 acre pond can produce 150 KW and I only need an avg of .5 KW then
thats like 1/300th the size which is .006 acres to power my house (and
im still figuring things up, there is alot to think about, but i think
i can get the house much more efficient than that!)
So anyway, just looking for thoughts/suggestions/opinions.
Logan
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| I think my last messege didnt work right:
Defunct how? I'd love to know it if it is because I am trying to plan
the house I will be building to retire in in a few years.
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| daestrom 2006-01-23, 7:21 pm |
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"Logan" <loggiew@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1137952443.439222.326950@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> So I am guessing that a number of you have heard of solar ponds and Im
> not simply refering to them for the fact of hot water or heating
> purposes, Im refering to them for the express purpose of generating
> electricity (although not limited to that).
>
> I am wondering what y'all think of them? I think I have some slight
> modifications that could improve their efficiency and make it viable.
> I'm sure that a number of you have seen this article or others like it:
> http://motherearthnews.com/library/...0_KW_Solar_Pond
>
> 150 KW is alot of electricity! I've read other articles about people
> who have gotten the temps to 109 degrees C (228 F) which is pretty
> amazing. I think though that it is inefficient to have it in an actual
> round pond shape. I think it would be better to have more like a trough
> with the same overall surface area but with it long like that you could
> actually do several things to improve its use now. For one thing you
> could now put sterling engines in with one side actually sitting in the
> hot water and then have the other side having cool air blown accross it
> from earth tubes (you know, the long conduits that you draw cool air
> through and it comes out at like 55 degrees) so you are creating a
> large tempurature differential causing the engine to spin quicker. I
> think you could also have water pipes running through the bottom of the
> hot water where the water in the pipe did not mix with the water in the
> pond but the pond heated the pipe and the pipe then ran to a hot water
> heater or something.
>
> I kind of figure with my house being setup for efficiency like I plan
> it to be it will use a fraction of the power that most houses use. If a
> 1 3/4 acre pond can produce 150 KW and I only need an avg of .5 KW then
> thats like 1/300th the size which is .006 acres to power my house (and
> im still figuring things up, there is alot to think about, but i think
> i can get the house much more efficient than that!)
>
> So anyway, just looking for thoughts/suggestions/opinions.
>
One question. Do you get as much sunshine as the Dead sea area??
daestrom
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| William P.N. Smith 2006-01-23, 8:21 pm |
| "Logan" <loggiew@gmail.com> wrote:
>I think my last messege didnt work right:
I think you are right, I never saw it...
>Defunct how? I'd love to know it if it is because I am trying to plan
>the house I will be building to retire in in a few years.
Someone recently told me they had been to the site where it had been,
and it was defunct. Maybe it was another forum, or an island I'm
involved with that looked very seriously into the idea of a solar
pond, or something, but that factoid stuck in my head. It ought to be
easy enough to verify.
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| Logan 2006-01-23, 10:21 pm |
| probably not  I still believe it is a completely viable option
(purely based on ammount of sunlight.. other problems are a dif story)
because while I may not get quite the same tempuratures I believe I can
still get them pretty high. The area of west virginia I was looking at
retiring to is very sunny most of the year even when it gets cold
outside. And there was a pond in texas I read about that had actually
frozen over for a time and it was still maintaining lows of 140 degrees
F.
So I think it is viable... I dunno though, thats why Im asking you guys
Logan
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