Talk:Solar Fire

I'm concerned that Solar Fire is a design that makes tracking too difficult. It appears to be a modified parabolic dish. The only reason I can think that it is not shaped like a dish is so that they could make it flatter. Making it flat appears to be why they needed 6 different angle adjustments (4 quarter sections, and it appears to still need azimuth and altitude). If it was in a standard parabolic shape, you could get tracking down to 1 axis based on a 24 hour clock (no electronic calculation needed) by putting the light receiver bucket on a equatorial axis (like tracking telescopes) that is adjusted once every few days. Supports would come from this axis to support the dish, so that the focus does not move, except for maybe when adjusting the tilt. This would be a lot taller at times, but allows more light capture in morning and afternoon.

If the flat design is a construction advantage, a equatorial axis tilt could still be employed, reducing an enormous amount of complexity.

This link shows how to build more advanced receivers, turning copper pipe inside a bowl with an opening. The smaller opening with insulation around the rest means less heat loss. Has no one at OSE contacted Dr Reddy in Bombay (IIT Madras) on this? Dr Reddy's designs look more technologically advanced and polished. He's producing steam, hydrogen, methane, ammonia, http://www.ese.iitb.ac.in/activities/solarpower/iitmadras.pdf (very slow loading, 3 MB) Zawy 01:26, 3 August 2011 (CEST)