Solar dish materials are produced from existing high volume commodities, existing casual labor, and existing tooling.

Dish optical performance is better than 90% efficient with uniform flux -- hot enough to melt black steel.

A new solar dish production system was designed for fast scale up from thousands of small shops around the world.

(year 2001)

Steel --
30 parts including small brackets - 260 lbs.
4.5 inch OD by 7 foot post - 76 lbs.
118 - 3/8 holes, 54 - 3/8 bolts and nuts.
All off-the-self steel, no castings, no welds.

Aluminum --
Matrix frame 0.375 by 0.055 wall round tube extrusion (not drawn) - 43 lbs.
400 - 1/8 holes, 136 - 1/8 rivets.
Receiver boom tube 3 by 0.050 inch - 6 lbs.

Glass --
150 sq.ft., 15 of 10 by 144 by 1/8 inch slats, low-iron glass, silver, palladium, paint - 188 lbs.
$1.65/sq.ft.

Foundation --
Reinforced concrete - less than one cubic yard.

Two drives 12 VDC 300 ma. ~ $100 each.

Electronics and sensors ~ $75.

Paint, plumbing, mirror fasteners, etc.

Installation labor ~ 16 hours.

Production cost installed ~ $1400.

Net aperture --
Thermal - 147 sq.ft. (13.7 m²).
CPV - At 850 suns - 129 sq.ft. (12 m²) without secondary concentrator.

Thermal value in Colorado climate equivalent to burning 13 barrels of oil per year ~ 2700 lbs oil per year.
A solar dish can displace more than four times its weight in oil per year.

Expected lifetime - 30 to 45 years.
Annual O&M - 2% to 4% of capital cost.

(year 2016)

Addenda ~~ 20 m^2 net aperture thermal

8 foot post 88 lbs.

Matrix frame 99 lbs.

600 1/8" holes 100 rivets.

Mirror -- 38 slats 10"x84" 2mm low iron glass Ag Cu, paint 181 lbs. $2.20/sq.ft.

Dish cost installed $2000.

Solar Dish Concentrator Materials