[TheEnergyMan]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopher ... ium=social

In time, he says, the prices of these devices should come down. The adoption rate should be similar to other home appliances that once seemed exotic but are now second nature, like air conditioners, refrigerators, hot water heaters and central heating. The Beacon could eventually replace two of those appliances — the furnace and hot water heater — says Kamen.

So in 10 years will everyone have one?

“I’d say yes. Ten years from today the probability that you are depending on wires hanging on tree branches is as likely as that you’ll still be installing land lines for telephones. Close to zero.”

[TheEnergyMan]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/christopher ... ium=social

In time, he says, the prices of these devices should come down. The adoption rate should be similar to other home appliances that once seemed exotic but are now second nature, like air conditioners, refrigerators, hot water heaters and central heating. The Beacon could eventually replace two of those appliances — the furnace and hot water heater — says Kamen.

So in 10 years will everyone have one?

“I’d say yes. Ten years from today the probability that you are depending on wires hanging on tree branches is as likely as that you’ll still be installing land lines for telephones. Close to zero.”

[Simon_R]

reading the small print .... it wont, it will simply replace paying the grid with paying the finance company that manages the lease.
At least you can reduce your bill with the electric company.
It really depends on the cost of the lease, but all in all, not very attractive, and not available to anyone over 50 (not enough time to repay the lease)

[Paulo1]

If they make a little guy that will run on wood, never mind the cow dung, I would be interested. I could see firing it up a few hours per day to recharge the freezers, run a range, and charge up some batteries for lights. I can see it now, fire up the stirling at 4:00 pm and shut it down at 7:00pm. I hope they will exist.

Wimbi, how is your stirling progressing?

Paulo

[Ibon]

Any heat source would work. Concentrated solar was the original application I believe. I am wondering how efficient The Beacon is using concentrated solar instead of natural gas and how this competes in price and efficiency with photo voltaic in electrical generation. You would need to add the price of the solar collector to the Beacon so it would be more that $ 10K.

Just as a comparison our hydro set up here at MTCF puts out a constant 8KW, comparable but the cost of materials, pelton, penstock, AC generator was around
$ 20k.

This Beacon could be a great solution if cost would be shared by several households and came with adaptation for multiple fuel sources; wood, gas, concentrated solar, etc.

[Pops]

Yep all you need to add is an energy source.

[Ibon]

Yep all you need to add is an energy source.

The question that remains for me is if the sun is your source of energy and if you have an efficient solar collector to create the heat to drive this Beacon, could it ever compete with photo voltaic?

As the report indicated the cost of making a 2kw version is not 1/5th the cost of making a 10kw version so their initial clients are larger consumers of energy. It would take a hell of a lot of PV panels on a roof to generate 10kw by the way so this could have its place but I would want to see that comparison to photovoltaic in terms of cost and efficiency.

[efarmer]

A stirling engine works the best with high differential temperatures which means if you wanted to do solar powered stirling the engine and the collector would be in close proximity. I greatly admire the technology, but I have a pragmatic side that would have a hard time getting my head around having $20,000 worth of very popular and presumably sought after technology out in the yard and up for grabs if not guarded. Again this is based on the assumption the solar collector would be tightly coupled to the stirling engine which in turn would be tightly coupled to an alternator or generator meaning all in one location outside. This bias of mine is similar to what my take was on the high technology, solar, incinerating toilet thread awhile back. Consolidation might drive a solar incinerating toilet and stirling engine generator that shared one solar collector I suppose.

Still,I would hate to come home and find the naughty boys made off with my beloved Solstirlaltercrapper rig, and left me consigned to poop via a "drywall mud" bucket with a flashlight in my teeth reading a Peakoil thread on my smartphone that explains how Obama is responsible for my loss.

[hvacman]

re: solar powered Sterling engines - adventures in Sterling-engine-based concentrating solar power systems from a few years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_Energy_System

I thought Sterling Energy Systems had a great set up, with tracking parabolic solar collectors. For a while, they were a hot commodity in the solar business. The simplicity, reliability, and falling costs of passive, non-tracking PV eventually did them in.

Thermal engines, whether they are internal combustion, or external combustion/heat source heat-engines, are complex mechanical machines. Add tracking complexities, heat sinks, extreme high heat materials, etc....small scale Sterling engines just won't pencil out compared to basic semi-conductor-based PV. Simplicity = trumps theoretical efficiency.

[toolpush]

$10,000 for 10KW sounds cheap to for an off grid system. Obviously a smaller system would be preferred, but compared to the cost of running electric cables any distance, it is cheap. It compares with a solar battery inverter system and the hot water would be built in. Now just make it wood fired and they have a sale. I have plenty of free wood, it just keep falling of off those funny things called trees.

[careinke]

$10,000 for 10KW sounds cheap to for an off grid system. Obviously a smaller system would be preferred, but compared to the cost of running electric cables any distance, it is cheap. It compares with a solar battery inverter system and the hot water would be built in. Now just make it wood fired and they have a sale. I have plenty of free wood, it just keep falling of off those funny things called trees.

A Tree (wood) is the best solar collector: It stores well, reproduces itself, If damaged will self repair, is available 24/7, has a huge EROEI, and if used correctly, has a negative carbon foot print.

[Ulenspiegel]

re: solar powered Sterling engines - adventures in Sterling-engine-based concentrating solar power systems from a few years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_Energy_System

I thought Sterling Energy Systems had a great set up, with tracking parabolic solar collectors. For a while, they were a hot commodity in the solar business. The simplicity, reliability, and falling costs of passive, non-tracking PV eventually did them in.

Thermal engines, whether they are internal combustion, or external combustion/heat source heat-engines, are complex mechanical machines. Add tracking complexities, heat sinks, extreme high heat materials, etc....small scale Sterling engines just won't pencil out compared to basic semi-conductor-based PV. Simplicity = trumps theoretical efficiency.

The basic problem of a Sterling engine is that it is limited by the Carnot-cycle, therefore, it is a save bet that good PV is more efficient and simpler than a solar powered Sterling engine.

Sterling engines make sense if you have anonther heat source like wood and if you can live with a low efficiency, i.e. the Sterling engine is then a back-up for the PV system.

[timmac]

Being tied to a natural gas line is not off the grid, I like how the article said its better than solar panel, how so ??, sun don't cost money like natural gas does..