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SunCatcher™ |
CSP Electricity Generation Technology
Harnessing the sun’s energy affordably, without consuming limited water resources requires a revolutionary solution. The SunCatcher™ solar dish Stirling system is truly that next generation CSP technology and represents a utility-scale deployable solar energy solution on a global basis.
The SunCatcher™ is a proprietary solar-to-grid-quality electricity generation technology. It is a 25-kilowatt-electric (kWe) solar dish Stirling system that is designed to automatically track the sun so as to collect and focus solar energy on to a power conversion unit (PCU), which generates electricity. The system consists of a solar concentrator in a dish structure that supports an array of curved glass mirror facets. These mirrors collect and concentrate solar energy into grid-quality electricity. The conversion process in the PCU involves a closed-loop, high-efficiency four-cylinder reciprocating Solar Stirling Engine, using an internal working fluid that is recycled through the engine. The PCU solar receiver is an external heat exchanger that absorbs the incoming solar thermal energy. This heats and pressurizes the internal working fluid in the heat exchanger tubing and this pressurized gas in turn powers the Solar Stirling Engine.
Today’s SES SunCatcher™ is the result of over a decade of innovative engineering and validation testing, with hundreds of thousands of hours of on-sun testing on each major sub-system, and on-sun testing for the complete system. |
Developed Here |
Manufactured Here
Prototype systems of the SunCatcher™ system have been operating for more than two decades. During this time, the critical elements of the system, the PCU as well as the dish concentrator have been completely redesigned for greater efficiency and performance, and so that it can be easily manufactured using high-volume manufacturing methods. It has recorded on aggregate, hundreds of thousands of hours of on-sun testing on all sub-systems, including complete system on-sun testing at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico and Maricopa Solar in Peoria, Arizona.
SunCatcher™ Highlights
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World record for highest efficiency conversion of solar energy into grid electricity |
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Lower cost–best fit solar solution |
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Only water needed by the SunCatcher™ is to wash its mirrors! |
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Scalable technology |
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The SunCatcher™ Electric Power System
The SunCatcher™ is a rare combination of breakthrough engineering and proven technology that can deliver power in even the most demanding environments. The SunCatcher™ generates 55,000 - 60,000 kWh of utility-scale grid-quality electricity per year by concentrating the sun’s energy by a factor of 1,100 times and holds the world record for highest sun-to-grid solar efficiency, converting it into clean, renewable power. The SunCatcher™ is modular enough to deliver today’s grid quality electricity at 1.5MW and scale easily to 1000MW, as needed to meet tomorrow’s growing power needs.
Public-Private Partnerships | 30 Years of Collaboration
In 1978, engineers at Ford Motor Company began developing designs of a solar-powered Stirling engine. Through the years, companies like McDonnell-Douglas, Lockheed Martin and Boeing all worked to improve on the technology and design. In 1996, SES, our sister company, based in Scottsdale, Arizona USA, was formed to develop this technology and has worked in a cooperative public-private partnership relationship with Sandia National Laboratories and US Department of Energy, to bring the SunCatcher™ to market. Following the NTR $100 million investment in May 2008, the design and technology has been further optimized and perfected and readied for low-cost, high-volume production and deployment. |
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