How much mirror would I need to boil enough water to generate electricity?

Question

I'm wondering what it would take to generate electricity with solar power but rather than use panels, I want to use mirrors to boil water and turn a turbine. Say I wanted to turn a typical car alternator/generator with steam. I set up mirrors that shoot light into a collector, boil the water, spin turbine, turn generator. This seems possible and simple in concept. What kind of mirror footprint would I need. Would the whole yard be filled with 3x3 mirrors with a 10' tower? Thoughts?

Where do I get a turbine?

Answer 1

It would depend on how well insulated your system is; the less energy lost, the less energy you need to collect with your mirror to boil the water, therefore the smaller collection mirror needed.

Then you have to look up turbine generator set efficiency to know how much steam you are going to need to turn the generator rotor within the stator field.

And if it is wet steam, it will either rust your turbine out or rip it apart depending on how fast it turns. Another reason insulation is important. The steam has to remain superheated all the way to the turbine.

Answer 2

As the Earth rotates, the sun appears to move across the sky and your mirrors all need re-focusing on the collector. There will be energy used to do this. I would stick with solar cells that convert sunlight directly into electricity. It seems much more efficient. And you don't have to deal with high pressure steam.

Answer 3

now thats a mythbusters question, watch discovery and go to their website and ask see what theyll say