BQ 'In the Field'

Long days are here at BjornQorn, and our array is staying well ahead of our demand: we made almost 300% of our popping energy. That means we were able to power other systems in the building, from lighting (all LED as of January, thanks to Lime Energy) to packaging machinery, as well. We will be installing heat pump/AC split units this month, which will extend the season that we can leave our conventional furnace off in the fall and spring, relying instead on solar electricity. 

Here’s a super cool “new to me” approach to concentrating sunlight: Microfluidics by Giant leap Technologies. They electronically squirt around channels of optical fluid in flat glass plates to guide sunlight, like tune-able liquid mirrors. This allows for high concentration without mechanically tracking the sun. One hesitation is that they are talking about mass producing these with 3d printing- 3d printing as a means of mass production always makes me a bit skeptical, even though it’s neat for prototyping. Of course the top image here is a computer render, this is still in the testing phase for sure Here’s another site describing...