Solar “Death Ray” (VIDEO)

April 21st, 2012 by Zachary Shahan

I’m not sure if this is cleantech — it could certainly be used for good if wished (if it weren’t destroyed in a shed fire… that it probably created), but the idea is a big part of what’s behind concentrated solar power. A Facebook friend actually shared the video with me this week in response to my home heliostats post — thought it made for a fun weekend share.

Needless to say, the preface to the video should be “don’t try this at home.” (Otherwise, you might burn down your shed.)

Here’s more info on the solar death ray and future plans from the YouTube page:

The R5800 is my latest and greatest solar creation. Made from an ordinary fiberglass satellite dish, it is covered in about 5800 3/8″ (~1cm) mirror tiles. When properly aligned, it can generate a spot the size of a dime with an intensity of 5000 times normal daylight. This intensity of light is more than enough to melt steel, vaporize aluminum, boil concrete, turn dirt into lava, and obliterate any organic material in an instant. It stands at 5’9″ and is 42″ across.
Unfortunately, the R5800 was completely destroyed in a storage shed fire on December 14, 2010.

music: “hypnothis” www.incompetech.com
provided under creative commons liscence

Coming spring of 2011:
Sun Runner 3
R23000 (R23K)

Area of dish aperture (elliptical)= (pi x 102cm x 73cm)/4 = 5848 sq cm
Area of focal point (circular)= pi(0.6cm)^2 = 1.14 sq cm
Concentration Power= 5848/1.14 = 5129 then rounded down
Output Power Estimate = 560 watts

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Tags: CSP, heliostats, quickies, solar death ray, videos

About the Author

Zachary Shahan spends most of his time here on CleanTechnica as the director/chief editor. Otherwise, he's probably enthusiastically fulfilling his duties as the director/editor of Solar Love, EV Obsession, Planetsave, or Bikocity. Zach is recognized globally as a solar energy, electric car, and wind energy expert. If you would like him to speak at a related conference or event, connect with him via social media. You can connect with Zach on any popular social networking site you like. Links to all of his main social media profiles are on ZacharyShahan.com.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Shecky-Vegas/1380703171 Shecky Vegas

Isn’t this how they took out the Lost Continent of Atlantis?
http://www.facebook.com/cees.timmerman Cees Timmerman

It could heat, roast, burn, weld, disinfect, power, and look nice… The 75% efficient ones by ZenithSolar could power 10% of Israel (1 GW) using 12 square km.
http://work-bench.org/ Christopher Miles

Cool, but a little disconcerting.

Never thought of using a sat dish for something like that,

Oh, and hey, CleanTechnica editors – don’t forget you are able to alter the size of the video embeds! Often times your videos are misaligned, and are cut off by your sidebar content. Don’t forget to change the width of the embeds.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  hey, thanks. WordPress used to auto-fit them when using the share link. Will have to keep an eye on that and perhaps use the embed code again. Thanks.
  - http://work-bench.org/ Christopher Miles
    
    No problem. Like your site(s) Good material, enjoyable reads.
    
    Chris Miles
    work-bench.org
    - http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
      
      Thanks.
Captivation

Lets hit rewind for about 2228 years to the time of Archimedes. He was the first to use polished Greek shields to set the Roman ships on fire.

http://gardenofeaden.blogspot.ca/2012/04/greek-history-who-was-archimedes.html
- jburt56
  
  Indeed.
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  figured this had been around for awhile.
Ross

Looks like fun!
- http://cleantechnica.com/ Zachary Shahan
  
  totally