Contents

Idea

Solar energy is a term meant to include all ways of harnessing energy from solar radiation. Ways of turning solar radiation into electrical power are discussed here:

• Solar power.

So, this is the page for discussing other uses of solar energy.

Smelting

On Azimuth, Henry Luce provided some information on solar smelters.

Here is a a patent application for a solar smelter, and a link to a database where you can search and get pdf files of patents for free:

• http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2010/0078012.html

Here is a web site, incidentally by the same guy who has the patent application above, about solar smelters. He’s apparently got a working model:

• http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Solar_Smelters_International.

Here are two articles in Russian by the same author on large solar smelting furnaces, behind a Springer paywall:

• A. A. Abdurakhmanov et al., Analysis of operating characteristics of various smelting furnaces on a large solar furnace, Applied Solar Energy 44, 24-27.

• A. A. Abdurakhmanov et al., Creating melting furnaces based on the large solar furnace, Applied Solar Energy 44 284-287.

Solar Cookers

There is a wiki devoted to the art of solar cooking:

• Solar Cooking Wiki.

Solar cookers can be used to ease the problems of deforestation (as in Haiti, where all of the woodbearing plants get burned for charcoal) and indoor air pollution from wood-fueled cooking fires:

• Ciara Byrn, The SolSource solar oven wins 500K EU in the Green Challenge, VentureBeat, 23 September 2010.