MIT team debut $5,000 solar thermal system

Over their summer break, a group of 23-year-old American university students have developed what could become the world’s cheapest and most effective solar power generator.

The team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have developed a solar dish that they claim extracts 1,000 times more power from the sun's rays than a conventional solar panel system and costs just US$5,000 (£2,500).

Using curved mirrors on the dish's aluminium surface, sunlight is magnified at such an intensity that it could melt steel. The power generated is directed towards a 12ft aluminium tube rising out of the centre of the dish.

At the top end of the tube is a section of coil containing water, which heats in an instant to create steam.

The students say this steam will be strong enough to power industrial processes, heat or cool buildings and generate electricity through a turbine.

They claim that unlike other solar thermal systems the dish is extremely cheap to construct, allowing consumers to recoup the costs of purchase in around two years.
The five, including Matt Ritter and Spencer Ahrens, have now founded the company RawSolar, obtained the rights to the technology, and are moving to California to seek investment for further marketing and development. Their aim is to begin producing thousands of the generators each year.

"The energy crisis affects so much of what we do," said Ahrens. "We are trying to work through these things in an environmentally and economically sustainable way. Sunlight is free."