Automatic Tracking Dual Axis Sun Tracker

 Every day, millions of tons of fossil fuels are consumed to provide energy for people’s needs. This has resulted in potentially catastrophic climate change, global warming, and air pollution. Our Automatic Tracking Dual Axis Sun Tracker with Stirling Engine is aimed at the educational market. This product is suitable for educational demonstrations to students at schools and colleges. At present, the main sources of renewable energy training are websites and printed materials which are theoretical and certainly not ‘hands-on’. Our bench-scale product, which involves a live demonstration with the direct participation of students, trains them in solar tracking, solar energy capture, and its conversion into electrical and mechanical work. Our hands-on product lets the students benefit from direct involvement in solar technology. The sun’s energy is concentrated through a reflecting off-center dish. The Stirling engine, placed at the focal point, then converts this concentrated heat into mechanical work and rotates a flywheel. The flywheel finally rotates a generator to produce electricity. The user can operate a side Stirling engine with a flame to compare this fossil fuel-based technology with the solar one to show that there are no gasses caused by this method as opposed to burning fossil fuels to generate heat.  This tool is designed for teaching solar energy.