# Stirling engines



## EKyH (Jul 14, 2013)

Has anyone had the chance to see is a Stirling engine would be a good source of alternative energy?


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

Stirling engines are pretty cool, but the problem is, they aren't very powerful. You can turn a small generator with them, but you won't be making much electricity.. 

Here's a good article on one that was built to generate electricity and hot water.. However, for what it cost for this, I'd rather just get a normal generator.. 

http://www.ohio.edu/mechanical/thermo/Intro/Chapt.1_6/StirlCogen/StirlCogen.html


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## kirkk (Feb 7, 2013)

I remember a company that was experimenting with solar tracking units and parabolic concentrators on stirling motors about 10 years ago. They were supposedly going to market 1 to 5 kwh units. Never did keep track of how they were doing. If they were succesful, you might look into it.


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## Txrider (Jun 25, 2010)

kirkk said:


> I remember a company that was experimenting with solar tracking units and parabolic concentrators on stirling motors about 10 years ago. They were supposedly going to market 1 to 5 kwh units. Never did keep track of how they were doing. If they were succesful, you might look into it.


They were starting to get pretty successful, here's a 300 megawatt installation of their stirling engine powered generators.. They went bankrupt a couple years back though when solar panel prices fell so much it made them non competitive price wise.


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## hefty lefty (Aug 22, 2013)

The Stirling engine is one of those ideas they talked about a lot in Popular Science type magazines when I was a kid but that never was a commercial success. Philips in Holland made a few tiny gen sets in the fifties and the only other commercial examples were designs for underwater robotic equipment and similar specialized tasks. 

A company in Sweden did build a successful Stirling engine prototype car, but no more was heard of it.


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