stirling engine

Charge your phone with a cold beer

The Epiphany One Puck may well be the world's most awesome coaster. It may also be the most useful. The One Puck doesn't just protect your coffee table from drink sweat, it also charges up your smartphone.

You don't have to plug the Puck into an outlet. It uses a small Stirling engine to provide the power. The device has two sides, one red and one blue. Place a hot drink on the red side, or a cold drink on the blue side.

Stirling engines have been around since the 1800s. They work by turning heat disparities into energy. Epiphany Labs has built a working prototype of its One Puck, though the company is still vague on just how long it takes for the device to charge up a phone. There are a lot of variables at play, including how hot or cold the source is.… Read more

Solar dish maker Stirling files for bankruptcy

Solar company Stirling Energy Systems has filed for bankruptcy, another casualty of a brutal global price war that is favoring commodity photovoltaic panels.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy late last week. The utility-scale solar company's largest investor is renewable energy developer NTR of Dublin, Ireland.

Founded in 1996, Stirling Energy Systems makes a large, 38-foot-high reflective dish which concentrates sunlight onto a Stirling engine to generate electricity. The 25-kilowatt SunCatcher dishes are designed to be used as building blocks for utility-scale solar farms in desert areas with sufficient sunlight.

After decades of development including a … Read more

Solar combo generator heats and powers

A new type of solar thermal system for homes that can provide heat, hot water, and electricity is being tested in Boulder, Colo., over the next few months.

Cool Energy says its SlowFlow system could provide the average U.S. home with 80 percent of its heat, 100 of its hot water, and 60 percent of its electricity needs.

It's being developed with help from the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and electricity and natural gas giant Xcel Energy.

The system consists of solar collectors, a Stirling engine, a hot water heater, a space heater, an insulated … Read more

Solar-driven Stirling engines get to work

Business and government officials on Friday cut the ribbon on a solar array in Arizona that uses giant parabolic dishes to generate electricity from the sun.

Solar plant developer Tessera Solar installed 60 solar collectors, called the SunCatcher from Stirling Energy Systems, in Peoria, Ariz. Each dish is rated at 25 kilowatts and the entire facility will have a capacity of 1.5-megawatts of generation.

Utilities installing large-scale solar power generation are typically using arrays of flat photovoltaic panels or concentrating solar power systems, where mirrors or reflective troughs create heat to make electricity.

The Stirling Energy Systems technology also … Read more

Infinia dish turns out solar power with Stirling engine

Infinia on Monday said that it raised $50 million to commercialize a large mirrored dish that turns out three kilowatts of solar power.

With the money, Infinia will be able to bring its Infinia Solar System to market late in 2008.

The company is negotiating with project developers who intend to use hundreds of the dishes in solar power plants in Spain and the southwestern United States, according to Infinia president J.D. Sitton.

The series B round was led by hedge fund GLG Partners and private equity firm Wexford Capital, and included prior investors Vulcan Capital, Khosla Ventures, EQUUS … Read more