Methods and apparatus for Inflatable concentrated solar energy station/balloon and self supporting cable
OwnerQuan Xiaoinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
With the new development of clean energy technology, there are more and more demand for concentrated solar energy to provide lightweight, cost-effective power and thermal generation. There's also a (separated) requirement to transmit power/energy effectively. The current invention including using a unique inflatable structure to concentrate solar energy, and made possible to create a balloon type solar power station to capture solar power above the ground. It also provides a self supporting cable solution for power transmission that overcomes the obstacles of supporting the weight of the cable and also be able to overcoming/reduce the wind drag related load to the cable.
Claims19
A solar power concentration apparatus comprised of:
- a. at least one enclosed surface which could be inflated with gas or mixture of gas, in which the pressure maybe used to keep/hold the shape, for example including but not limited to:
- the external shape, the shape of an reflective surface inside the outer layer, etc;
- b. has at least one transparent part(s)/portion of the surface to let sun light in;
- c. at least one reflective surfaces, for example but not limited to:
- have a reflective wall or membrane(s), these reflective surfaces are in a shape that concentrate sunlight (such as spherical, parabolic and etc).
A cable like apparatus for the power/energy transmission comprised of:
- a. Means for supporting at least partial of the cable's weight, such as but not limited to:
- means to provide buoyancy, means to provide lift, means to provide thrust, or the combination, and etc. These forces might be used on sections of the cable-like apparatus;
- b. cable to transfer power/energy which is flexible and at least partially controllable, for example how to support its own weight, and/or how much it will support, and/or other aspects such as the shape/moving direction of the cable;
- So that the weight supporting means support the cable while the cable transferring power/energy.
A method of transmitting energy between different altitude comprised of:
- (including)
- supporting each section of the cable with buoyancy or lift or thrust or any of the combination, so that the entire weight of the cable is not “applied to” any single point of the cable. The weight is supported “collectively” by the nodes/sections of the cable, and using the cable to perform power/energy transmission.
A method to provide energy transmitting between 2 different altitudes for purpose such as but not limited to high altitude wind/solar generation includes:
- Combining active sections which provide ways to supporting its own weight (or a portion of it), by means not limited to:
- lift, buoyancy, thrust or the combination, the combined section forming a cable like structure, which is flexible and partially controllable, and have conduit(s) for energy transferring.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.