I bought some high efficiency, thermal conversion solar panels from TEMU. Theyre higher voltage than older style panels. My older panels are on a different charge controller.
I have a total of 3000 watts of panels.
Theyre charging twenty 12.8 v 100 aH lithiium batteries wired in 24 volts mode.
I also have a 600 watts wind generator, and Im building another one for low speed winds with 5 blades. I have a seperate lead acid battery bank on the wind generator.
I have more power than I can use.
I'm not hooked to the grid. Ive been off grid six years. My system has paid itself off. The next ten years or so will be free. Thats $12,000 of free electricity. I'm happy with that. That will pay for another set of batteries, and I can go another 15 years. I got the lithium batteries for $3000.They are rated at 6000 cycles,or 16.4 years.

Great video, thanks for sharing Glen!

great! thanks for sharing!!!

Too noisy for my home. I'll wait for high voltage sodium ion batteries. Thanks for posting.

Finally.  I've been trying to figure out the best way to use the Fresnel lens to do similar things, but on a very tight budget.  I thought of the tracking system myself, but didn't pair the stirling engine because of noise for my neighbors.  You can use them on an oil heater in your house by focusing two placed in your house through a window, but you only capture an couple hours on each one... but at least it contributes at a low fixed cost.

In theory sterling engines are great but they have to be very well made = expensive, well maintained = expensive.  They also wear out quickly as anyone who has ever built a kit version will tell you.

Very interesting!

A similar device about the same footprint of a chest freezer could provide domestic heating storage for a single-family home using air as the transfer media and could be powered by either panels with calrods or linear Fresnel lenses into sand or crushed rock beds. Might even be able to run a absorption chiller in the summer.

USING LESS IS THE BIG KEY

This is fine if you need heat.  If you need electricity, storing electricity in a battery is far more practical than maintaining a heat to electric conversion system which has far greater conversion losses than electricity in and out of a battery.

Like you, I hope this idea functions.  It seems to me there are opportunities to diversify the energy outputs.  What if I need residential heat more than I need electricity?  What if I need process heat?  Interesting.  Looks like my home electricity cost is $0.2/kilowatt-hour in the Seattle region.

The reason the plant failed was desert sand was ruining the mechanism that moves the lenses. Some particles are very small. Burning man people know about that. 😅

Id love a non battery home power storage solution...

Varies with the time of day energy consumed, $0.14 to $0.12 per Kw-hr, plus other charges which during the past month resulted in an overall charge of $0.148 per Kw-hr (Evergy in KCMO)

Tucson AZ  7.8 cents/KWH. I like this solution but time will tell.

What about heating the ballast with electrical elements powered by solar panels, and then you only have the Stirling engines have to be maintained but those can be made using modern ceramic materials.

10.5¢/kWh eastern WA state

Not mentioned here, that there are Stirling engines with no moving parts.

ty❤

Would you be interested to understand and see how to store AC?