Joel Howard Goodman
Building Integrated Exterior Small Heliostats Systems Studies model photo
Solar Concentrating and Storage Architectonics Dec. 2013 booklet by Joel H. Goodman
Background (first paragraph revised Jan 9-2016)
An observation from the old history of solar energy applications (1)(2)(3) is offered before looking at the contemporary developments associated with the presented active solar architectonic studies. An interpretation is: Leonardo da Vinci (in his late 40s-early 50s) around 1515 began building a giant parabolic mirror four miles across for process heat (a dyeing factory) in a bowl-shaped terrain-excavation (1)(4). Fixed mirrors supported on stabilized excavation and masonry structures seems unlikely because of fixed parabolic dish optics with a fixed point receiver, and extent of excavation and construction required for such a large concave imaging concentrator substrate. A more likely presumption, since Leonardo was an adept mechanical designer, is a field of two-axis tracking heliostats structured on a terraced terrain, four mile diameter dish-bowl shape, but electric motors were invented in the 1800s. A target focal point receiver, on a 13ft pole (3, pp54-58) could have been sized in accord with a frame holding flat mirror segments. Buffon’s c1740 heliostat had several 6 inch square flat mirror segment (57--Perlin, 2013). Francia’s later CSP constructions in the 1960s included small two-axis tracking heliostats; and perhaps Leonardo’s 4 mile diameter concentrator design was the forerunner for the heliostats central receiver (on a tower) Themis pilot plant installed at Targassonne, near Odeillo, France, c1976 (5). And more recently there are the Cyprus hillside heliostats system studies by MIT (58--Slocum, et al, 2011).
(1) Butti, K. and J. Perlin, A Golden Thread, 1980, Van Nostrand Reinhold
(3) Kryza, Frank, The power of light, 2003, McGraw Hill
(4) Pedretti, The literary works of Leonardo daVinci,1977
(57)Perlin, John, 2013, Let it shine, New World Library Pub.pp54-55.
(58) Slocum A., et al, Concentrated solar power on demand, Solar Energy 85, 2011, 1519-1529.
Building Integrated Exterior Small Heliostats Systems Studies model photo
Solar Concentrating and Storage Architectonics Dec. 2013 booklet by Joel H. Goodman
Background (first paragraph revised Jan 9-2016)
An observation from the old history of solar energy applications (1)(2)(3) is offered before looking at the contemporary developments associated with the presented active solar architectonic studies. An interpretation is: Leonardo da Vinci (in his late 40s-early 50s) around 1515 began building a giant parabolic mirror four miles across for process heat (a dyeing factory) in a bowl-shaped terrain-excavation (1)(4). Fixed mirrors supported on stabilized excavation and masonry structures seems unlikely because of fixed parabolic dish optics with a fixed point receiver, and extent of excavation and construction required for such a large concave imaging concentrator substrate. A more likely presumption, since Leonardo was an adept mechanical designer, is a field of two-axis tracking heliostats structured on a terraced terrain, four mile diameter dish-bowl shape, but electric motors were invented in the 1800s. A target focal point receiver, on a 13ft pole (3, pp54-58) could have been sized in accord with a frame holding flat mirror segments. Buffon’s c1740 heliostat had several 6 inch square flat mirror segment (57--Perlin, 2013). Francia’s later CSP constructions in the 1960s included small two-axis tracking heliostats; and perhaps Leonardo’s 4 mile diameter concentrator design was the forerunner for the heliostats central receiver (on a tower) Themis pilot plant installed at Targassonne, near Odeillo, France, c1976 (5). And more recently there are the Cyprus hillside heliostats system studies by MIT (58--Slocum, et al, 2011).
(1) Butti, K. and J. Perlin, A Golden Thread, 1980, Van Nostrand Reinhold
(3) Kryza, Frank, The power of light, 2003, McGraw Hill
(4) Pedretti, The literary works of Leonardo daVinci,1977
(57)Perlin, John, 2013, Let it shine, New World Library Pub.pp54-55.
(58) Slocum A., et al, Concentrated solar power on demand, Solar Energy 85, 2011, 1519-1529.