How these mirrors generate solar energy

0:00 - Mirror structures 0:54 - My simple experiments with them 2:35 - They replace large lenses 4:04 - How a complex mirror structure works 5:26 - Comparison with my 8 cheap mirrors and others My experiments were aimed at finding very cheap mirrors for solar energy which is cheaper than electricity from thermal and nuclear power plants, and the end of this video will remind you of my experiments with 8 types of cheap mirrors. However, my previous video described these transparent plates as an alternative to my cheap mirrors, and now I will describe another alternative that focuses solar radiation in this way, like a large lens. But we understand that a traditional lens of these dimensions would have enormous weight and unimaginable cost, while these structures are thousands of times lighter and cheaper. You may have seen similar structures in these systems of converting solar radiation into heating air with a temperature of about 1000 ⁰C, or in these systems for solar heating water, or for producing free solar hydrogen, or for producing solar electricity. To better understand how these structures focus, let's first look at the simplest cases, for example, this solar hot water system for my summer cottage. Here you see 3 mirror planes that are illuminated by radiation from the sun and reflect the radiation onto this receiver. Now I am trying to show you how these 3 spots of solar radiation from those 3 mirror planes are combined into one common spot in the place where this receiver is located, where the water is heated by this solar radiation spot. For example, now you can see that the receiver has already increased the temperature of 50 liters of water in this tank above 70 ⁰C, and how it works without any moving parts and electronics was described in this my old video. It also describes my experiments with these 5 mirror planes which receive rays from the sun and direct them into the window in addition to this radiation directly from the sun. This was filmed inside the room, and now you see those 5 mirror planes, the radiation from which you see here, and the energy of this radiation gives the house additional heating in the winter. These are the same 5 mirror planes, but now they direct this solar radiation inside my small greenhouse, onto these bottles of water which is heated by the radiation to almost 60 ⁰C, so that later this hot water heats the greenhouse at night. This was my exploration of the idea of ​​a large long greenhouse with this large long cylindrical lens that focuses the solar radiation on this line which scatters the radiation onto the plants and these barrels of water. It was the idea of ​​a tropical climate inside the greenhouse during our cold winters so that the plants would receive a lot of solar radiation and free solar heating, but it is obvious that this expensive lens should be replaced with such a cheap structure of mirror planes. If we want to create not the cheap analogue of this cylindrical lens, but a cheap analogue of a spherical lens, we come to this structure of mirror surfaces in the form of rings, which focus solar radiation not into a line, but into a point, for example, here. Now you can take a closer look at the mirror rings. I remind you that this giant mirror structure focuses solar radiation into this receiver, where the radiation is converted into heating of air, which transfers the thermal energy into this tank so that the summer thermal energy can be used to heat houses in the winter. This is another mirror structure that has this absolutely motionless receiver, where solar radiation is focused and creates a temperature higher than 1000 ⁰C, which can be used to generate electricity, or produce hydrogen, or for industrial processes in various factories. The mirror structure of this project is horizontal and motionless, and it focuses solar radiation into this tank filled with stones that are heated by the radiation to 1000 ⁰C, which is used to generate electricity and other purposes.