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Soaking Up the Sun

Soaking Up the Sun

An array of SunCatcher solar power systems sits beneath a brilliant New Mexico sky. Each SunCatcher automatically tracks the sun, converting intense heat into grid-quality electricity. The 38-foot diameter dish is made of 82 curved glass mirrors, which focus solar energy onto the heater head of a four-cylinder reciprocating engine. Each engine generates as much as 25 kilowatts of electricity. This group of six SunCatchers - developed by Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems - recently set a solar-to-grid conversion efficiency record by reaching a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate.

Chad Vander Veen is a former contributing editor for Emergency Management magazine, and previously served as the editor of FutureStructure, and the associate editor of Government Technology and Public CIO magazines.
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