Investigation of the performance of a solar powered Stirling engine

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Distributed electricity generation has the potential to solve many global issues including electricity supply to developing and remote areas while addressing environmental issues. Innovative Solar Power Inc. (ISPI) is a Montréal based company (registered as 8725535 CANADA INC.) which is developing technology to tackle these challenges. Their approach is to use their novel device to concentrate solar energy into a thermal storage device and then use this thermal energy to generate electricity. Core to this approach is the use of a Stirling engine to convert heat into electricity via mechanical motion. This type of engine is unique in that the heat source is external to the engine and its working fluid and can come from a variety of processes including combustion, geothermal and solar. The research and development work in this project will address two fundamental issues of the Stirling engine design. The first is the design of a hot side heat exchanger to be used specifically with the concentrated solar energy / thermal storage system. The second is to address issues related to the sealing of the working fluid, helium, which has a high thermal capacitance for good engine efficiency but is difficult to seal because of its low molecular weight and high diffusivity. Resolving these issues will allow the Stirling engine design to be optimized. The aim is to generate a complete system that will be more efficient and more cost-effective than current technology which includes solar panels and photovoltaics.