Integral Solar Powered Thermoacoustic Electricity Generator with Funnel-Shaped Concentrator

An integral solar powered thermoacoustic electricity generator with a funnel-shaped concentrator has been successfully built and tested. It uses an efficient funnel-shaped concentrator to collect the solar energy and then drive thermoacoustic engine to produces acoustic power which is used to drive a generator, and generate electricity. The focus of the funnel-shaped concentrator is located outside of the parabolic reflector, and inside of the straight tube formed by the cylindrical reflector. The thermoacoustic electricity generator is mounted on the concentrator bottom, and the hot heat exchanger is located at the concentrator focus. The inner surface of the concentrator has no shadow. The thermoacoustic electricity generator and supports racks can be installed without space limitation that makes it easy to design, install and maintain, and makes the energy transmission to the next stage more efficient as well. The performance tests under the real weather condition have been carried out. These preliminary results showed a good potential of the system to be an alternative in near future for the solar energy utilization with advantages of environment-friendliness, mechanism simple, and solar driven mechanism.