[RE-wrenches] Infinia Stirling linear alternators generators

[Darryl Thayer]

My involvement and knowledge goes way back so I have forgotten much.  I
think the unit was charged with Helium.  Helium has a slow leak it seems.
the units I was familiar with had no way to refill the helium charge.
 Also the rings or seas may be bad.  The piston had rings, seals, and a
long life was expected but if those seals went bad of course the power
would drop off.   I do not even remember the basic Sterling cycle,  I think
the piston did the valving such that the only moving part was the piston.
Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.   Thank you for the many helpful comments
you have made over the years.

On Sat, Nov 24, 2018 at 1:40 PM Starlight Solar Power Systems <
larry at starlightsolar.com> wrote:

> Thank you Hilton and Darryl. That explains what I’m seeing here in Yuma: A
> 90kW installation that went slowly, and is now entirely, off line.
>
> These are the linear alternator design. Any chance your friend will have
> technical documents?
>
> Larry
>
>
>
> On Nov 24, 2018, at 11:37 AM, Hilton Dier <hiltondier at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A friend of mine worked for them. I believe they went bankrupt and/or got
> bought out. Seemed like the usual high tech startup management
> cluster_____. Tech guys trying to do finance and finance guys trying to do
> tech.
>
> They had a good idea in that the 3kW engine didn’t require the complicated
> heat exchanger of larger machines. It had a linear alternator design, which
> simplified things as well. They also developed a cheaper mirror.
>
> Their problem was that the price of PV dropped so much that they couldn’t
> compete in turnkey $/kWh. There are a few orphaned arrays out there with
> nobody to do O&M.
>
> Unsolicited opinion: solar Stirling is a non-starter in a world of cheap
> PV. Stirling does have a place in small scale cogeneration.
>
> Hilton Dier III
> Renewable Energy Design
> Missisquoi River Hydro LLC
>
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