Lead: Dr. Henry Brandhorst

Purpose and Goals: Design, develop and operate, on ground a newly developed, lightweight, high efficiency free piston Stirling convertor (FPSC). Tests would confirm its durability, efficiency and ease of use. Future uses include various NASA moon/ Mars exploration missions and DOD terrestrial uses. When combined with lightweight Fresnel lens concentrators and thermal rejection systems, they are competitive with advanced solar arrays.

Description: The free piston Stirling convertor has recently emerged as the leading candidate for converting the heat from solar, adioisotope or nuclear sources into AC electricity with efficiencies above 30%. The FPSC has only two moving parts that don’t contact any surfaces hence have very long life. In addition, when two convertors are connected together, they work in harmony with no significant vibration. In addition, for terrestrial uses, like DoD, the power system is exceptionally quiet. Presently FPSCs of 35 W, 160 W and 1.2 kW are being investigated for DoD and NASA applications.
 

Major industrial partners: Sunpower, Inc. , CERDEC

Other partners: Radiance Technologies Inc.