Internal Rechargeable Batteries?

[PRR]

> LLNL's 20kW Stirling engines and the six-meter solar mirror that runs it.

6m is 20 feet. Didn't find "LLNL" in a hasty search but I found something similar at 38 feet.

> a 20KW Stirling plant that will fit on a residential lawn that has a 20 year working life and can be paid for in 10 year note.

In the next 10 years I will pay ~~$15K for electric.

I can build a 20-foot garage for that sum, but not rotating, and sure not 38 feet of rotating structure. (I also have to think about wind blowing it over, and the lack of ground-anchoring on my thin acres.)

AND... the sun does not shine 24/7. You may have sun 14/6.9 but there's still a lot of dark muggy hours to A/C. I have weeks of clouds and 17 hour nights.

So back to batteries, rectifiers, inverters (or worse things like uphill ponds or huge heat-stores).

I have water over my land but I figure most of the year it is good for 100 Watts. And might need 200 feet of pipe to develop that much power. And 400 feet wire to the house.

[R.G.]

You're in Maine, by your sidebar note. I'm in central Texas, which is the same lattitude as Morocco. Summer electric bills due to air conditioning are often over $400 here. Mine aren't, because I spent about an extra $50k on a house with concrete walls and 2" of styrofoam on each side as well as 8" thick styrofoam roof insulation. I'll never get payback on the $50k - until I sell the house  .  But you get the idea.

Air conditioning costs make it a more serious issue here. A solar powered  setup, even if it only runs in the day time in the April to October air conditioning season, is time-matched to the big loads. Air conditioning at night is easy.  And if you have excess cooling capacity during the day, you can use it to cool/freeze water for cooling overnight.  My house water system runs on collected rainwater, so there's two 15,000 gallon tanks of water to store heat in if a flywheel that big is useful to me. Even more interesting is that electricity is my prime mover for things like water pumps and computers. Being able to run things, even part of the time, independent of the electrical grid, is useful. Out in the sticks, we sometimes lose electrical power. This area lost it for 10 days not long before I got here, although I've only seen a one day loss while I'm here.

So yeah, I would like to have a solar-to-cooling solution.  The Suncatcher system looks like a commercialization of the stuff I found when it was still at - I thought - Lawrence Livermore. The 38 feet is an issue, but not much of one. I do have a 20 acre back yard with a southern exposure. What that article didn't mention is that the efficiency of that system (if it really is the commercialization of the laboratory one) is the *highest* of any sunlight-to-electricity system in existence. It beats photovoltaic handily, or did at the time.

Independence is worth paying for.

[tempus]

Something to think about for the OP:
http://www.dx.com/p/universal-portable-5v-30000mah-li-ion-battery-dual-usb-solar-powered-power-bank-w-led-indicator-279255?utm_source=dx&utm_medium=edm&utm_campaign=20140612subscriberjune#.U5iQOECwWas

[WhiskeyMadeMeDoIt]

I noticed with the rise of ecig mods they are making 3.7 volts 3900mah batteries now. They are slightly larger than an AA. Wonder if these would be usable in a pedal?