The Godzilla of Solar Ovens

Post by ChuckMcM » Thu, Jun 30, 2016, 10:49 PM UTC

Retric wrote: post #34

ChuckMcM wrote: post #30

This and the Odeillo plants are pretty amazing. It is remarkably easy these days to build something which can create some really amazing temperatures. I used a Fresnel lens from a 50" rear projection TV to build a concentrator for the kids as part of a science project. We have also used more commercial solar ovens[1] to cook bread and other parts of dinner in the backyard or at camp. That said, I've always wondered i…

Using this on earth is hard because any clouds prevents this from get into extreme temperate ranges. So, you have low utilization in the 10-30% range. This also gets vastly harder the further you get from the Sun and the asteroid belt is not all that close. A solar concentrator + solar panel + more traditional methods may work better especially out in the ort cloud.

Post by Retric » Fri, Jul 01, 2016, 12:41 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #41

Retric wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using this on earth is hard because any clouds prevents this from get into extreme temperate ranges. So, you have low utilization in the 10-30% range. This also gets vastly harder the further you get from the Sun and the asteroid belt is not all that close. A solar concentrator + solar panel + more traditional methods may work better especially out in the ort cloud.

Possibly, but you can make a kilometer diameter mylar mirror which folds up into a pretty small pouch. A small puff of gas to inflate the 'struts' and poof you've got more sun to work with. The asteroid belt is nominally 2.5AU from the Sun and using the inverse square law would suggest 1/6th the amount of solar insolation. So the Odeillo oven has 2600 sq meters of mirror and generates temperatures of 3000 degrees. Ou…