alternative to solarcellss - dish? heat gathering dish?

 I just saw a segment on a hybrid hydrogen car on "screen savers", and it was
mentioned and shown an alternative to using solar energy over photovoltaic -
it just looked like a big satellite dish.  All it does I think is gather heat,
and this powers something that makes your hydrogen fuel from water -

OK, does anyone know what this technology is called so I cam look further into
it?  The company said they were just now starting to make these things and
that they are cost effective, much better than even today's panels - and I got
the impression it would become very cheap in a few years..

      ...D.

P. S.  as a side note the hydrogen hybrids were 1 mil a year ago to make, this
years 100 thou, next year cheaper, and in a couple of years cheaper to make
than regular because less moving parts..

    

  ...D. wrote:


Try "solar thermal hydrogen". I did a quick google search and found
things like these...

http://www.re-co2.com/REfocus%20Article%20-%20RECO.pdf
http://www.redrok.com/hion96.htm

Anthony

 D wrote:

mentioned and shown an alternative >to using solar energy over photovoltaic -

   The Israelis - with their vast deserts in a subtropical zone - have done
something like this for years.  Long parabolic-mirror troughs heat a solution
to generate steam - which then powers a turbine and generator.
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 wrote:


One alternative to PV that seems promising is solar-fired Stirling
engine driving electrical generator.

For a parabolic reflector / Stirling example under development, see:

 http://www.sunmachine.de

I've seen another plan for trough-reflector / Stirling / generator
combinations and the outfit was predicting twice the overall
electrical output / insolation efficiency of PV, but I can't put my
hands on a link right now.

I'm glad this stuff is looking good and all, but speaking selfishly,
my problem is generating power when the sun *isn't* out. My PV system
is fine, what I need is wood-fired Stirling.

But that's me, the frozen Canuck.

-=s

 
...

You might look into the possibility of storing the solar hot as 100C water,
then using a low temperature difference engine to get the power out. A
slightly more complex system would use the very hot focus of the solar
concentrator and atmospheric to produce power, then use the power to pump
heat from a mixed fluid system with fresh water packets that can transition
to ice and back, into a 100C stratified tank. Reversing the heat pump, or a
separate heat engine then gets it out, and you do not have the loss of
simply collecting it at 100C rather than 300-500C where more of the energy
is available. A thermal storage battery.