MIT Group Makes Low-Cost Solar Concentrator
Via: Boston Herald:
Spencer Ahrens, a 23-year-old mechanical engineer, was on MIT’s campus last week, holding a wooden plank, surrounded by onlookers.
Slowly, he turned that wooden plank before a series of mirrors that had been placed inside an aluminum frame, until the wood caught fire.
That was quite a moment, recalled Matthew Ritter, one of the onlookers.
“Let’s just say it was a small combustion for wood materials, but a giant explosion of solar energy,” he said.
Ahrens, Ritter and the other people who helped create the solar-powered dish that harnessed the sunlight that eventually burned the wood say they’ve just created the world’s most cost-efficient solar power system.
They also say these dishes may revolutionize global energy production.