SHPEGS — DIY Solar/Geothermal Electricity

rohar writes "SHPEGS is an open design not-for-profit project to design and prototype a base-load renewable electrical generation system suitable for moderate climates and built from common materials. The design centers around creating a local geothermal source with an efficient solar thermal water heater system and can be scaled from single residence to mega-scale. The heliostat system used in Europe's first solar thermal plant could be used in a scaled-down SHPEGS system with Practical Solar's small scale heliostats."

I predict big problems already...

[agwis]

"The project is being managed with a similar methodology to Open Source Software Development and the ideas and contributions are being published openly on the Internet without an attempt to secure patents."

• little to none documentation
• support will most likely come through forums, mailing lists, and irc
• paid support contracts likely originate from knowledgeable engineers who live in exact opposite time zones
• frustration arising from having to download needed software through mirrors, but unable to find one that isn't down or broken
• disputes with lead engineers causing forks of the project. you will have to decide which path to follow
• nobody has put together a package for your distro, you have to resort to make, make install...never works
• eventually microsoft will announce that you are infringing upon 235 of their patents but they won't tell you which ones

All kidding aside, I will be watching this project. I keep hearing that if you can generate your own electricity and give back surplus to the grid then the power company has to pay you. I can't wait for the day I can call my utilities company and tell them they have 10 days to pay up or I will be forced to hand deliver a final notice!

Re:Efficiency?

[mdsolar]

Thanks. I'm looking for a number though. For a solar tower you might expect 0.5% http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_updraft_tower [wikipedia.org] but this project is tweaked. If the heat is being stored, it is still solar power, but delta T may not be so favorable. For corn ethanol, the efficiency is about 0.06%. At this level of efficiency for energy production/storage competes with food production so it is not all that feasable. But, algae get close to PV efficiency http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/02/photosynthesis .html [blogspot.com]. So, in terms of land use, I'm trying to figure out where this falls.

I wonder how this would be for growing winter crops as well: is the ground warmed eough? And, if it is, what kind of losses might be expected owing to water evaporation from soil?