solar thermal

3 Articles

DIY Solar Generator Inspired By James Webb Telescope

May 30, 2025 by 36 Comments

If you look at this solar generator from [Concept Crafted Creations], you might think it’s somehow familiar. That’s because the design was visually inspired by the James Webb Space Telescope, or JWST. Ultimately, though, it’s purpose is quite different—it’s designed to use mirrors to collect and harness solar energy. It’s not quite there yet, but it’s an interesting exploration of an eye-catching solar thermal generator.

To get that JWST look, the build has 18 mirrors assembled on a 3D printed frame to approximate the shape of a larger parabolic reflector. The mirrors focus all the sunlight such that it winds up heating water passing through an aluminum plate. Each mirror was custom made using laser cut acrylic and mirror film. Each mirror’s position and angle can be adjusted delicately with screws and a nifty sprung setup, which is a whole lot simpler than the mechanism used on the real thing. The whole assembly is on a mount that allows it to track the movement of the sun to gain the most sunlight possible. There’s a giant laser-cut wooden gear on the bottom that allows rotation on a big Lazy Susan bearing, as well as a servo-driven tilting mechanism, with an Arduino using light dependent resistors to optimally aim the device.

It’s a cool-looking set up, but how does it compare with photovoltaics? Not so well. The mirror array was able to deliver around 1 kilowatt of heat into the water passing through the system, heating it to a temperature of approximately 44 C after half an hour. The water was warmed, but not to the point of boiling, and there’s no turbines or anything else hooked up to actually take that heat and turn it into electricity yet. Even if there were, it’s unlikely the system would reach the efficiency of a similarly-sized solar panel array. In any case, so far, the job is half done. As explained in the build video, it could benefit from some better mirrors and some structural improvements to help it survive the elements before it’s ready to make any real juice.

Ultimately, if you need solar power fast, your best bet is to buy a photovoltaic array. Still, solar thermal is a concept that has never quite died out.

Continue reading “DIY Solar Generator Inspired By James Webb Telescope” →

An image of an orange, translucent glowing quartz rod. Thermocouples can be seen at intervals along the rod looking in.

Industrial Solar Heat Hits 1000˚C

May 21, 2024 by 17 Comments

While electricity generation has been the star of the energy transition show, about half of the world’s energy consumption is to make heat. Many industrial processes rely on fossil fuels to reach high temps right now, but researchers at ETH Zurich have found a new way to crank up the heat with a solar thermal trap. [via SciTechDaily]

Heating water for showers or radiant floor systems in homes is old hat now, but industrial application of solar power has been few and far between. Part of the issue has been achieving high enough temperatures. Opaque absorbers can only ever get as hot as the incident surface where the sun hits them, but some translucent materials, like quartz can form thermal traps.

In a thermal trap, “it is possible to achieve temperatures that are higher in the bulk of the material than at the surface exposed to solar radiation.” In the study, the researchers were able to get a 450˚C surface to produce 1,050˚C interior temperature in the 300 mm long quartz rod. The system does rely on concentrated solar power, 135 suns-worth for this study, but mirror and lens systems for solar concentration already exist due to the aforementioned electrical power generation.

This isn’t the only time we’ve seen someone smelting on sunlight alone, and you can always do it less directly by using a hydrogen intermediary. If you’re wanting a more domestic-level of heat, why not try the wind if the sun doesn’t shine much in your neighborhood?

Hippie-Redneck Solar-Heated Swimming Pool Slash Hot Tub

February 18, 2015 by 17 Comments

In need of a jacuzzi to complete your backyard but just don’t have the cash? Need a swimming pool for the little ones but tired of the cheap plastic ones popping and leaking all over the place? Look no further than [inexplorata]’s self-explanatory “Hippie-Redneck Solar-Heated Kiddo Swimmin’ Pool And Hot Tub“.

The pool uses a six-foot-diameter metal stock tank, provided by a neighbor. After some liberal use of JB Weld, the tank functions as a makeshift pool on the cheap, but the magic doesn’t end there. [inexplorata] found a solar thermal water heater that someone was getting rid of and snagged it to heat up the water, which is almost a necessity for most parts of the Northern Hemisphere right now.

A sump pump in a bucket handles water circulation, and [inexplorata] points out that the single water heater is more than enough to keep the water nice and warm (“hot enough to poach a rhino” is the scientific term used on the project page) so if you’ve got the means, this might be a welcome addition to the backyard! The build was posted on Reddit, the users of which had some helpful suggestions for improving the pool if you want to tackle this yourself. If you don’t have a solar thermal water heater, you could always make one of those too.