Seen through a mirror, former team member Wade Ogg works on an early prototype of a heliostat.
The current members of the Tech heliostat team are (from left) Prithwish “Wish” Das, Matthew Green, Robert Slingsby, Katelyn Williams, Tim Barnes and David Petersen. Not pictured: Theresita Martinez.
Now, the team is building a prototype system, thanks to a recent $10,000 grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a proposal the students themselves wrote.
Dr. Warren Ostergren, an associate professor with the Tech’s department of mechanical engineering and the team’s faculty advisor, said the students worked on the grant proposal outside of class, and called it “a unique experience for an undergraduate team. They’ve got big plans,” he said.
Indeed they do. The Tech team of undergraduate students will compete against other collegiate teams at a national “People, Prosperity and the Planet” – EPA/P3 – competition in Washington, D.C. in May 2007, with travel funds included in the grant.
Tech students Theresita Martinez and Robert Slingsby returned to the heliostat team this semester as seniors. Non-returning team members Wade Ogg and Joe Waligora graduated from Tech in 2006. Collin Horvat has completed all his senior design classes at Tech. New team members are Tech undergraduates Timothy Barnes, Prithwish Das, Matthew Green, David Peterson and Katelyn Williams.
The project grew out of the department’s junior/senior design class, a core requirement for all mechanical engineering majors at Tech. The team is officially known as the “Heliostat Design Clinic Team.”
A heliostat is a device that uses mirrors to reflect a beam of sunlight in a fixed direction. Slingsby described the team’s device as “a bunch of mirrors in an array that reflect light to a specific point.” The purpose is to create electric energy by focusing the sunlight on a central receiver where the collected heat is used to power electrical generation equipment. A key challenge for the team is to design a system that is cost-effective, he said.
Heliostats cost about $12,000 per 100-square-meters of mirror system. The Tech team has set an initial goal of reducing this industry standard cost by one-third to reach the goal of $8,000 per 100 square-meters, or $80 per square meter. If successful in meeting this goal, the students believe heliostats will be able to compete with natural gas and wind as a clean source of energy.
Among project goals are that the natural energy system be easy to maintain, defined as “all parts can be replaced within one hour”; and, that it be maintenance-efficient (able to operate up to 25 years with minimal maintenance, defined as only replacing a major component every 10 years with regular maintenance and inspection).
The device also must be able to withstand sustained winds of 35 mph and gusts of up to 90 mph.
“A previous prototype was made out of fiberglass, empty Gatorade bottles and other stuff,” said Slingsby, a graduate of St. Michael’s High School in Santa Fe and this year’s team leader. He added, with a smile, “We had a very small budget.”
This early prototype is a testament to the resourcefulness of Tech students in general – as well as to their knowledge of the scientific principles that form the foundation of their studies.
The Tech team’s prototype has no byproducts, Slingsby said: “Our only resource is solar energy.”
Slingsby estimates he spends a minimum of five hours a week as team leader, eventually to “ramp up to 15 hours a week.” He schedules meetings and assigns tasks. “I see it as my responsibility,” he said.
Martinez might be called the team’s first co-lieutenant as one of the only other two returning members of the original group.
“Last year I helped with the prototype and writing,” said Martinez, a 2003 graduate of Santa Fe High School.
“I like the idea of an alternative energy source, which is what drew me to engineering,” she said. Her high school teachers directed her into the field because of her strong aptitude for math; and, Martinez said, she has found mechanical engineering to be a broad field.
A team project is a requisite of earning a Tech mechanical engineering degree. Both Martinez and Slingsby chose the heliostat.
Mechanical engineering students fill 11 teams. The department is the university’s fastest-growing, and has the highest enrollment.
“What’s very nice is that this team is so well-funded,” Ostergren said. “In general, we’ve had quite a bit of luck in attracting industry sponsors, which allows the teams a lot more freedom and creativity,” he said. The other 10 mechanical engineering teams also had outside funding.
“We don’t want competition among teams,” said Ostergren. “Our students help each other – the competition is between us and other schools.”
Tech also provided financial support.
“For the heliostat project, that initial funding from the university provided the seed money for the team to get started,” Ostergren said. “The team then used that funding to build their prototype and to acquire the more significant federal government grant.”
Slingsby said the team secured a donation of mirror facets for their projects from a private company three of the team members encountered at a workshop this past summer at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque.
“They were willing to give us up to $10,000 in mirrors, up to 10 feet in diameter,” Slingsby said.
Slingsby, Ogg, and Ostergren attended the July workshop at the request of Sandia, based on fundamental work on the heliostat project last spring in conjunction with engineers at Sandia.
“Because of this work, we were invited to join the heliostat workshop, where the students had an opportunity to talk about their work, and to get encouragement,” Ostergren said. “This led to new contacts and potential donations from some of the private companies at the workshop. These companies were very encouraging and supportive of the team’s goal to come up with a cost-reduced concept.”
With additional funding, the team can expand the project scope, and include students in both Tech’s electrical and materials engineering programs.
In the meantime, the students are part of a team working to shed light – and focus light – in the ongoing search for affordable energy.
