Solar Sunflower

When I look at solar power stations, I admire what it does, but it has a vibe that it's just wasting space. When walking near Davidson Lab at Stevens Institute of Technology, the solar panels are covering what appears to be a garden with some beauty.

The Sunflower Solar Harvester, developed by the Swiss company Airlight Energy have developed transportable solar power stations that track the sun like a sunflower and cools itself by pumping water through its veins. The power station can produce 12 kW of energy from 10 hours of sunlight which is enough to power several househoulds. The head of research Gianluca Ambrosetti said "It's an integrated system so it supplies both electricity and heat. You can use this heat to drive a cooling system too, if you need refrigeration." This power system will have appeal to those that have multiple requirement and alot of sunlight.

This technology will not replace fuel powered generator sets which produced 10 times the power of one solar sunflower. 100 sunflowers would be needed to run a hospital that requires 1.2mW of power. However, it would be awesome for a small camp hospital with minimal refrigeration requirements for medicines, it could be set up in a remote location and just one dish could satisfy quite a lot of those needs.

This solar power station has visual appeal, portable, and provides multiple functions. When it comes to renewable resources, this is a great new start to the right direction.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/16/tech/innovation/sunflower-solar-harvester/index.html