UTILISING THE SUN’S ENERGY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1289, 27 August 1914, Page 4

UTILISING THE SUN’S ENERGY.

Complete success has attended the installation of the Shuman sun power engine in Egypt, which has been carried out by a British company under the supervision of the iqventor, assisted by several eminent engineers, who have suggested various improvements in the plant to adapt it to local conditions. The sun's rays play upon what is called an absorber, which is a trough-like arrangement of parabolic sections, fitted with mirrors. The latter are thin, and are set in a light metal framework. The absorbers, disposed in rows running north and south, are made to rotate, so as to receive the solar radiation at the best angle. This movement is effected automatically by means of an ingenious electrical beliostai. In the centre of the trough is the boiler. The water occupies a narrow, elongated space, and as it is evaporated by the heat reflected from the mirrors, and turned into steam, it ascends into the upper cylindrical boiler connected to the water space. This boiler 13 really a long length of pipe which extends to the engine. The first plant was set up in 19H • and although it accomplished the designed work, it revealed certain shortcomings. These were remedied, and last year an improved installation was erected. The total absorbing surface is 14,400 square feet, and the maxi-

mum output of steam has been so far 14421 b per hour, at a pressure of 15. Sib per square inch. The engines employed are of the low pressure type. The total cost of the plant was ,£1,550, which is about twice the cost of a steam raising plant of equal capacity. At the same time, in such a country as Egypt the solar plant is cheaper to run than a steam engine, owing to the high price of coal, which averages about 60s per ton. The solar engine was tested in connection with irrigation pumping, and the trials were so satisfactory that the Egyptian Government ordered a further installation of 100 horse power. Plants of this kind, however, can only be used in tropical climes, where the sun shines the whole year through, and throughout the day ; but as such countries, as a rnle, are deficient in native fuel resources, the solar engine possesses vast possibilities. In fact, it is possible to generate electricity with the heat from the sun’s rays, and to light tropical towns and cities thereby, although in this instance ample accumulator facilities would have to be provided to carry the station over the periods—hours of darkness—when the solar plant could not be worked.