The concentrator is a Fresnel lens and has been developed for Ford by engineers at Georgia Institute of Technology. Although Fresnel lens technology has been around for centuries for use in lighthouses, in this case, instead of pushing the light beam out, the lens concentrates sunlight to produce up to 8 kilowatts of energy. Even the solar cells being used by Ford are 50% more efficient than those currently available commercially.
With a full charge the new vehicle which is a hybrid will have a driving range of 1,000 kilometers (620 miles). On electric-power alone it will be able to go 33 kilometers (21 miles).
Built using the C-MAX as its vehicle platform, the Solar Energi addition remains a concept for now but Ford hopes to start building solar power into its fleet of vehicles to help it achieve its carbon reduction targets. Ford estimates if all light-duty vehicles were to use the equivalent technology it will be demonstrating at the show, the U.S. would reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions by 1 billion metric tons.
Why desert sand as a material resource?
Because as Markus Kayser states, “In a world increasingly concerned with questions of energy production and raw material shortages, this project explores the potential of desert manufacturing, where energy and material occur in abundance.”
What does sintering involve? It is a process for converting materials from powder to solids through the application of heat. The Solar Sinter uses a large Fresnel lens as the means by which to generate heat by focusing the Sun’s energy on sand which then melts to become glass. Like most 3D printers it features a movable platform that gradually lowers as glass is fashioned on the spot and deposited layer by layer to build an object. Watch the video Kayser recorded last year showing the way Solar Sinter works. It is fascinating.
How much would a Solar Sinter cost? I cannot find a price anywhere in the literature but Kayser states that a Fresnel lens costs about $600 U.S. The rest of his jury-rigged device looks like it has been built from a kit of commonly found parts. I’m guessing the total package is a little more than $1,500 U.S. tops.
Solar Sinter requires no special software. It takes CAD-created drawings and receives the output which gets stored on a memory card before being fed to the printer mechanism.
Considering the amount of sand out there in deserts right around the world, Solar Sinter sounds like the kind of tool that has uses in lots of places where raw sand is abundant but manufacturing infrastructure is not.
]]>
