Earth Flatulence Power (EFP) [RE-wrenches]

[Michael Welch]

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Hi gang. Sorry to seem the wet rag. I am always a bit surprised to hear faith being put into a technology that, so far, has not panned out and does not show great promise to do so. 

The "modern" Stirling engine concept has been around for about 200 years (and older versions are said to predate the steam piston engine). In that time, Stirling makers have come and gone, all with no or very limited success. I love the idea of external combustion engines for home scale energy production (gas microturbines seem really cool too). I've been hearing of Stirling engines for the past 15 years, always hoping that something usable, trustworthy, and affordable will come our way. Home Power readers continually ask about them, and I continually warn them to hold onto their wallets.

What's wrong with them? Not sure, but Stirlings seem to be saddled with a very short MTBF, and being a high-tech item produced on a small scale, parts and repairs can be costly ("Need a new piston? Hold on, we need to fire up the lathe. Jim, hand me that billet of aluminum."). Putting those two together sounds pretty darn expensive.

Yup, there are a couple of companies out there that are making them, and at least one apparently marketing them to the public. But, would you sell your customers a technology that has not been successfully tried by time? Based on past performance in their industry, would you trust those companies to be around and making parts a few years from now?

Just like many other things in our industry (like $1 per watt retail PV) Stirlings are fun to think about and, who knows, maybe some day ...

Forget the gas well, and sell those folks some PV.

  
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Michael Welch
Submissions Coordinator
Sr. Research Editor
     Home Power magazine
     www.homepower.com

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