Stirling engines have been around since the early 19th Century, but they’ve never managed to find major commercial uses beyond toys like the Micro-Stirling-powered spinny thing pictured. The engines are a great concept, with the potential to be far more efficient than internal combusion, but the inherent disadvantages (most notably a long warm-up time and sluggish output variance) have kept Stirlings confined to very specialized jobs. Now, EE Times reports, engineers have determined that harvesting solar power with Stirlings (rather than the traditional photovoltaic cells) can bring the cost of harvesting solar energy way down. Now, this could mean clean energy for homes and businesses, which is great, but I’m more interested in portable solar-powered Stirling generators. Like, backpack-sized. You listening, Voltaic? Stirling solar collection dishes could be a hot fashion accessory.
The Stirling engine poised for a breakout? [via ArsTechnica]
