Solana Beach, Calif.-headquartered Open Energy Corp., a designer and manufacturer of solar energy products, has signed a joint development agreement with Infinia Corp., a Kennewick, Wash.-based developer of solar electric technology, to create the Suncone/Stirling solar electric power system.
The engineering teams at Infinia and Open Energy believe that Open Energy's Suncone CSP solar concentrating power system can be modified to deliver over 700 degrees centigrade of solar thermal energy to Infinia's free piston Stirling engine. According to the companies, this combination will generate electricity on a cost-effective basis without burning fossil fuels or emitting greenhouse gases.
‘We are very excited by the potential of this combined effort,’ says David Saltman, Open Energy's president and chief executive officer. ‘We will begin our product development utilizing a modified version of this engine to prove out the feasibility of the Suncone/Stirling system, before developing a larger version for distributed generation applications.’
