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Submission

introduction
title
SOLAR STEAM
short description
Solar steam process heat is available globally from existing commodities, tooling, and labor skills.
Eligibility
Full Description
One square meter of sunlight in Colorado climate is worth 2000 kWh per year. One m^2/year is worth more than one barrel of oil per year.

Solar glass mirrors are 96% efficient and cost $25/m^2 at scale. All glass solar concentrators cost about the same. Solar dishes are the most efficient at 91% or 80% with average dirt in the real world. Solar dishes can melt steel. Research indicates solar dish cost at about $100/m^2, less than $0.20/Watt. These numbers demonstrate solar energy cheaper than all types of fossil fuels.

Fast global scale up requires technology transfer for local autonomous integration, like building houses in India with local materials and local labor. New manufacturing is not needed for massive parallel construction using existing commodities and existing labor skills.

Solar steam can be used for district heating. With seasonal heat storage city-wide heat and hot water can be supplied all day the whole year. Whole cities can be 100% solar heated from solar collectors located 30 miles away. http://www.dlsc.ca/borehole.htm

Other applications include absorption chilling air conditioning, industrial process heat, cooking food, water purification, and 35% of the energy can be power created with solid state generators (type III-V HIPV ~ high-intensity photovoltaic cells).

https://www.climatecolab.org/contests/2016/industry/c/proposal/1326902
Ideation Video
References
Submissions may include up to 5 links to research literature that provides background and relevant patents. Such links can be to a website article, a Wikipedia page or for National Lab IP, https://www.labpartnering.org/lab-technologies. It is the Prize Administrator’s hope that the quality of literature referenced in the submissions will factor into voting results.

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