Workshops
Workshop Wrap-ups

Front Row: Herb Hayden, Dwight Collins, Adrian Assassi, Mounir
El-Koussa
Back Row : Martina Doleshal,
Shailesh Vaidya, Russ Genet, Nick Elias, Kiran Shah, Cheryl
Genet, Bruce Holenstein |
Second Phoenix Astro-Solar Workshop
of the
Mobile
Solar Initiative
Saturday
October 13, 2012, 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Southwest
Solar Technologies,
3545 S. 28th Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85040
Co-chairs and
sponsors
Russ Genet,
California Polytechnic State University,
russmgenet@aol.com, 805 438 3305
Dwight
Collins, Presidio Graduate School, Collins Educational
Foundation
decollins21@comcast.net, 415 525 4674
Herb Hayden,
Southwest Solar Technologies
herbhayden@swsolartech.com, 480 425 2615
Kiran Shah,
Chroma Energy Systems (India)
kirnya@gmail.com
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Workshop Description
Off-grid electric power has traditionally relied on
diesel-powered generators, but as fuel costs have increased,
solar power produced from flat-panel arrays has become
increasingly competitive. Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) power
systems—an alternative to flat panel solar power systems—use
mirrors or Fresnel lenses to concentrate sunlight by a factor of
500 or more on just a few highly efficient triple-junction solar
cells. CPV systems track the sun, and this increases their
efficiency as sunlight always strikes the units straight on.
In typical CPV systems, less than half of the solar
energy is converted into electricity, while the rest is
dissipated as waste heat. This heat, however, can be used for
heating or to purify brackish or contaminated water. Solar
electric power/hot water/clean water systems could be highly
competitive with diesel systems in off-grid situations.
Ownership of mobile solar CPV systems could be
decoupled from property ownership. Thus they could be rented or
leased out by small business entrepreneurs or governments. NGOs
could loan mobile units to off-grid villages to provide both
electric power and clean water, while families could purchase
units for their own use and take with them should they
relocate. It is conceivable that mobile off-grid CPV solar
electric power and water purification systems could become a
major source of electric power and clean water for the planet.
This could avoid the cost of building and maintaining new and
vulnerable distribution systems. By avoiding centralization,
two of humanity’s most pressing needs—electrical power and clean
water—could become more democratic.
“Light bucket” telescopes, such as Cherenkov
radiation telescopes, and telescopes equipped with on-axis
(non-imaging) instruments such as high speed or near infrared
aperture photometers, polarimeters, spectroscopes, and intensity
interferometers, are similar to concentrated solar power in
their need for large photon-concentrating mirrors. The workshop
explored astronomical applications of low cost mirror
technologies.
Participants
Adrian Assassi – Presidio Graduate School graduate
Dwight Collins – Presidio Graduate School – MBA Chair, Collins
Educational Foundation – Founder & President
Martina Doleshal – Presidio Graduate School
Nicholas Elias –New Mexico Tech - Adjunct Professor
Mounir El-Koussa – California Polytechnic State University
graduate
Cheryl Genet –Collins Educational Foundation, Collins Foundation
Press – Managing Editor
Russ Genet – California Polytechnic State University-Research
Scholar
Herb Hayden - Southwest Solar Technologies - CTO
Bruce Holenstein –Gravics, Inc.- President and CEO
Tommy Joseph (Call in) – Epiphany Solar Water Systems – Founder
and CEO
Kiran Shah – Croma Energy (India) - CTO
Shailesh Vaidya - Croma Energy (India) - CEO
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Workshop Agenda
Friday,
October 12, 2012
6:00-9:30
No-host social hour and dinner
The Grill
at the Legacy Golf Course, 6808 S. 32nd Street
Phoenix, AZ 85042
Saturday,
October 13, 2012
9:00 Solar
Session
Welcome -
Herb Hayden
Astro-Solar
Overview
- Russ Genet
Introduction to CPV Cells and Systems - Kiran Shah and Shailesh Vaidya
Fresnel
lens CPV systems - Shailesh Vaidya and Kiran Shaw
Solar
sSystems and Mirror Technologies - Herb Hayden
Epiphany
Solar Clean Water System (calling in) - Tommy Joseph -
Framework
for Solar Unit Needs Assessment -
Martina
Doleshal (with
Dilnaz Kain and
Dwight
Collins)
Hydrasol -
Adrian Assasi
1:30 Astro
Session
Light
bucket astronomy - Bruce Holenstein - (with Russ
Genet)
Meter-Class
Telescope Array Science - Bruce Holenstein (with Russ Genet)
Polarimetry with a Two-Meter Telescope - Nicholas Elias
Mobile
Astro-Solar Testbed Design - Mounir El-Koussa
Group
Photo / Tour of Southwest Solar Technologies facility
Closing
discussion - Dwight Collins (moderator)
6:00-7:30
No-host dinner at the Grill at the Legacy Golf Course, 6808
S. 32nd St.
Sunday,
October 14, 2012
9:00-11:00
No-host working breakfast
The Grill
at the Legacy Golf Course
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Friday Evening Dinner at the
Grill at the Legacy Golf Course
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Martina, Cheryl, Shailesh, Dwight,
Russ, Kiran, and Adrian
Also attending were Bruce and Russ' son Russ Genet and his wife
Jamie |

Russ and Kiran finalize the date for
the International Mobile Solar Conference in India in 2015.
We are all excited! |
Saturday Morning - Solar Session |
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Sessions were held in the Southwest
Solar's beautiful and well equipped conference room |

Russ introduces the themes of the Workshop |

Dwight and Kiran |

Kiran discusses Concentrated Photo Voltaics |

He explains spectral response of triple junction solar cells |

Nick, Bruce, Russ, and Mounir |

Shailesh, Herb and Dwight |

Martina examines a typical solar cell |
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Herb discussed linear optical
array's and Adrian examines one of the linear prisms |
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Above: Martina describes the three
steps in a Customer Centered Product Development Process
Below: Workshops participants explore the questions that
might be asked in implementing this development process
for mobile solar units for smaller off-grid villages in India, guided by Kiran and Shailesh |
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Adrian shares his concept of a HydraSol |

The HydraSol is a hand carriable solar water purifier |
Herb Hayden takes participants on
a tour of the Southwest Solar facilities |
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Saturday Afternoon - Astro Session |
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Mounir shares his work developing
the design for Mobile Astro-Solar Testbed II |

Nick and Bruce - the model of the Southwest Solar dish in the
background |

Slide from Nick's presentation on
Polarimetry with a two-Meter Telescope |

Bruce covers light bucket and meter-class astronomy |
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Mobile Off-Grid Solar
CPV
Electrical Power and Water Purification Systems
Saturday, November 12, 2011 -- 10am-5pm
Sunday, November 13, 2011 – 10am-3pm
Presidio Graduate School
36 Lincoln Blvd at Graham Street
The Presidio, San Francisco, CA 94129
Click here for a pdf version of this wrap-up |
Co-chairs: Dwight Collins (Presidio Graduate School)
Russ Genet (California Polytechnic State University)
Kiran Shah (Chroma Energy Pvt.,Ltd., India)
Workshop Coordinator: Cheryl Genet (Collins Educational
Foundation)
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Workshop
Agenda
Saturday,
November 12th Talks and Discussions
10:00 - 11:00 Welcome and Overviews
Presidio Graduate School Welcome
Dwight Collins
Attendee
Introductions All
Overview & Workshop
Objectives Russ Genet/Dwight Collins
Solar Power
Kiran Shah
Structural
Analysis Abe Lynn
Lightbucket
Telescopes Laura Rice
11:30 - 1:00 Background Tutorials
CPV Basics (20 min)
Kiran Shah
CPV Optical considerations (10
min) Herb Hayden
Water Purification Basics (20
min) Tom Joseph
Flat Panel Mobile Systems (10
min) Travis Semmes
Small Business Considerations (15
min) Dave Genet
Development & Commercialization (15
min) Dariush Rafinejad
1:00 - 2:00 Lunch (Compliments the Collins Educational
Foundation)
2:00 - 3:00 Working session: Rapid Prototype
Design Kiran lead
3:00 - 3:30 Working session: Project Planning
Russ lead
4:00 - 4:30 Working session: Sustainability/Business
Dwight Collins lead
4:30 - 5:00 Wrap-up
Sunday,
November 13th Strawman Design Session
10:00 - 11:00 Discuss Requirements
11:00 - 12:00 Rough Out Major Parameters
1:00 - 2:00 Develop Quantitative Spreadsheet
2:00 - 3:00 Discuss and Record Economic and Production
Considerations
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The workshop was co-chaired, left to right by Kiran Shah,
Russ Genet, and Dwight Collins. Kiran, a mechanical engineer,
came from India where his company, Chroma Energy, is
developing a tracking megawatt low cost concentrated solar power
system that uses Fresnel lenses to concentrate the solar power. Kiran is also keenly interested in mobile solar power systems
that use mirrors as the sunlight concentrator and triple
junction solar cells to produce electricity. The waste heat
can potentially be used to purify water in a membrane distillation
system. Russ, an astronomer, has a special interest in “light
bucket” telescopes. These are non-imaging, light-concentrating telescopes
with very low quality optics used for high speed photometry, spectroscopy, and other applications. The similarity of these low cost,
large portable telescopes to mobile solar power systems led to
an interest in the latter. Dwight, a consultant in supply
chain optimization and sustainable business, is also an
instructor at the Presidio Graduate School and President of the
Collins Educational Foundation, which sponsored the workshop.
The mission of the Collins Educational Foundation is to provide
leadership in humanity's efforts to live sustainably on Earth. |

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The workshop was well attended with about two dozen conferees
from the Presidio Graduate School, California Polytechnic State
University, Stanford University, the University of California,
Berkeley, and industry. Students were well
represented, coming from the Presidio, Stanford, and Cal
Poly.
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We were very pleased to hear two talks from Kiran Shah, one an
overview of solar power, and the other on the basics of
con-centrated photovoltaic systems. The efficiency of triple
junction solar cells is currently approaching 50% and may go
much higher. Only a few cells are required, as they can run at
very high power levels. Thus while they are more expensive per
cell, if the mirror concentrator can be very low in cost, then
the overall system cost can be reduced as compared to flat panel
systems. For both mobile CPV power systems and light bucket
telescopes, the key is low cost, lightweight, and
environmentally rugged mirrors. |

Cal Poly student Laura Rice (left) and Abe Lynn (one of Laura's
instructors), described the structural design of the world’s
largest portable telescope. The design and prototyping of
this telescope was coordinated by the Alt-Az Telescope
Initiative working group. Laura and her team at Cal Poly (Mounir
El Koussa and Mike Vickers), used the engineering techniques
they had learned to design skyscrapers to design this very stiff
yet low cost structure. |

The bulk of the structure of the Alt-Az Initiative working group
telescope was automatically CNC milled from
sheets of high quality plywood, although in production aluminum
sheet would be used. Mike (left) and Mounir are shown standing
beside the structure at the engineering “high bay” at Cal Poly,
with Russ Genet, he project mentor on the right. |

The mirror for this lightweight, low cost telescope has been
made by Display and Optical Technologies Inc. (DOTI). Mike Itz,
DOTI President gave a call-in talk that described the process
they use to slump ordinary soda-lime plate glass into telescope
mirrors. For telescopes, the plate glass is ground and polished
on the top side, and then coated with aluminum in a vacuum
chamber and overcoated with a clear layer of silicon oxide. For
solar power mirrors, the same slumping process would be used,
but the back side of the mirror would be silvered and sealed and
no grinding or polishing would be required. Shown below is a
“squarish” 2.4 meter mirror prior to having its back side
silvered and overcoated.
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Another approach to low cost mirrors has been pioneered by Lisa
Brodhacker, an organic chemist at Lander University, and her
students. One way to avoid expensive
grinding, figuring, and polishing is to spin a liquid material
in a container at a constant speed. The material will naturally
assume a parabolic shape. If the material is an epoxy, it will
harden while spinning and a mirror of the correct optical
shape will have been formed without the expense of optical
figuring. Of course the devil is in the details.
Lisa and her students and
associates are able to produce very lightweight,
low cost, large-aperture mirrors at a very small fraction of the
cost of ground and polished glass parabolic mirrors
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Lisa Brodhacker and one of her undergraduate student researchers
hold a 25 inch spin-cast epoxy mirror (above).
The oven for
spinning 2-meter mirrors is in the background. A
platter is supported by a very stiff air bearing.
Oven panels
with heating elements keep the epoxy at an elevated temperature
while it sets to reduce shrinkage.
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A very low cost alternative to the mirrors described above is the use of
prime focus (on axis) satellite dishes. Epiphany Solar Water
Systems uses 2.4-meter dishes for their solar water distillation
systems. The segmented dishes are easy to ship and can
be assembled on site. Optically reflective plastic inserts are
added to the front surface of the dishes. Although these
systems do not also generate electricity, Epiphany envisions
this as a future evolution of their systems.
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Three of Epiphany Solar Water Systems 2.4-meter satellite dishes
that have been converted for use as solar water purification
systems. Tom Joseph, President of Epiphany (below)
explained how their low cost solar systems could provide clean
water to many of he planets needy areas. |

During the afternoon
talks, the Presidio Graduate School’s
Academic Dean, Ed Quevedo, joined the conferees. Ed is trained
as an attorney and has and extensive background in
sustainability law. |

After the talks on Saturday, many of the conferees went to
dinner at Capurro’s in Ghirardelli Square. Left to right: Cheryl
Genet, David Genet, Tom Joseph, Kiran Shaw, Russ Genet, and
Dwight Collins. |

On Sunday, Kiran, Dwight, Dave, and Russ met to rough out a
“strawman” design, including a discussion of production issues
and a rough stab at production costs.
Dwight and Dave work on some of the economic issues, using the
whiteboard to sketch out ideas. |

Kiran modified his spreadsheet analysis system and took notes.
After a few hours of discussion, the working group finally came
up with a rough production costs of $5,000 for a 2.4 meter
diameter mirror system that would produce 1 KW of electricity
with hot water (or clean water) as a byproduct. |

Dwight wraps up the cost estimate. |
A Promising Future
As the price of fuel increases and the cost of triple-junction
solar cells decrease, portable CPV solar power units could
become increasingly attractive—especially as developments reduce
the costs of mirrors and the support/tracking structures. It
might be noted that portable CPV units get a developmental “free
ride” on the coattails of firms producing CPV triple-junction
solar cells in the millions for huge megawatt power plants.
For instance, IBM is developing a solar cell that can handle a
very high concentration factors. It has the liquid heat
exchanger built into the solar cell itself (Muller).
One of the features being pursued in the development of portable
light bucket telescopes is the ability to assemble the telescope
from a compact package, much as mass produced furniture that
requires “some assembly.” We have purposely designed the
structure of the Alt-Az working group telescope as a series of planar trusses that lay flat when
disassembled for ease of shipment or storage.
If costs are driven low enough, portable CPV solar power units
could become very widespread, even seeing use as off grid,
fixed-location power units. Ownership of these portable units
could be decoupled from property ownership. Units could be
rented or leased out by small business entrepreneurs.
Governments or NGOs could loan units to off-grid villages for
electric power and clean water. Families could purchase units
for their own use and take with them when they moved.
It is conceivable that portable CPV solar power units could
become a major source of power for the planet. Not only would
their adoption avoid the costs of power distribution systems, but
it
would also avoid centralized control. Thus two of humanity’s
most pressing needs—electrical power and clean water—could, in a
way, become democratic. |
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Solar CPV
Electrical Power & Water Purification
Systems
Saturday December 3, 2011,
10:00 AM – 5:00 PM
Southwest Solar Technologies,
3545 S. 28th Street, Phoenix, Arizona 85040
Co-chairs
Russ Genet, California Polytechnic State University
Herb Hayden, Southwest Solar Technologies
Click here for a pdf version of this wrap-up
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Workshop
Agenda
10:00
- 11:00 Introductions and overviews
Welcome
Herb Hayden, Southwest Solar Technologies
Attendee self introductions
All
Workshop Introduction Russ
Genet, California Polytechnic State University
Large CPV/clean water systems Herb
Hayden, Southwest Solar Technologies
11:00 - 11:30
Break and Tour of Southwest Solar Technologies
11:30 - 12:30 CPV solar power
Strawman mobile 2.4 meter system Dwight
Collins, Collins Educational Foundation
A medium concentration CPV solar system Alan Kost,
University of Arizona
Evaluation of HCPV systems V. Lonij/A.
Brooks, University of Arizona
12:30 - 1:30
Group photograph in front of the 22 meter dish
On-site lunch provided by the
workshop sponsors: Southwest Solar Technologies,
Mobile Solar Initiative, Collins
Educational Foundation, and Blue Bottle Vending
1:30- 3:30 Water purification
Solar driven water purification
Wendell Ela, University of Arizona
Solar energy/water treatment scenarios for AZ Ardeth
Barnhart, University of Arizona
Evaluation of membrane distillation technology*
Kamalesh Sirkar, NJ Institute of Technology
Epiphany solar clean water systems Tom
Joseph/Henry Wandrie
4:00 - 5:30 Astro-solar commonalities and low cost
mirror technologies
Cherenkov radiation telescopes Dave
Kieda, University of Utah
Stellar Intensity Interferometers Dave
Kieda, University of Utah
SCOTS test for solar & telescope mirrors Peng Su,
University of Arizona
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Workshop attendees (left to right): Dwight
Collins, Paul Thomas, Dave Kieda, Russ Genet, Herb Hayden,
Alan Kost, Ardeth Barnhart, Dave Genet, Wendell Ela, Tim Wiese,
Peng Su, and Colby Parker.
The photo was taken by Russ Genet (Jr.), who also attended the
workshop.
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The Mobile Solar Initiative’s second workshop took place in
Phoenix, just south of Sky Harbor Airport at the headquarters
of Southwest Solar Technologies. A dozen folks
attended the workshop. This workshop gave more emphasis to the
“stellar-solar connection” than the San Francisco workshop,
although the majority of the talks and discussion were about
concentrated photovoltaic solar power systems and solar water
purification.
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Conference attendees stand at the base of
Southwest Solar Technologies’ 22 meter, multiple mirror panel
parabolic reflector. The reflector is pointed toward the ground
and the square white screen on the boom just above the group was
installed at the focal point for astronomical observations that
night. Sadly, it remained cloudy so we were unable to make the
observations, although we enjoyed our extended dinner
J.
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Seated far side of table from the left: Alan Kost,
Herb Hayden, Dave Genet, Tim Wiese, and Colby Parker.

Seated far side of table from the left: Peng Su,
Dwight Collins, Russ Genet (Jr.), Ardeth Barnhart, and Dave
Kieda. Russ (Sr.) took the pictures.
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During a break period, we toured the
shop facilities at Southwest Solar Technologies. Paul Thomas
points to control
electronics, while Alan Kost, Peng Su, and Dwight Collins listen
in.
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A much discussed topic at the workshop was membrane water
distillation. Ardeth Barnhart (University of Arizona) gave an
overview of a solar water distillation system in northern
Arizona on the Navajo Nation's reservation, which has many
off-grid locations and sits on a brackish water table. This
system uses hot water (not quite boiling) and a rolled up
membrane (similar to that used
in the orange juice industry) for the distillation process.
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Ardeth and Dwight Collins (Presidio Graduate
School) discuss the solar/membrane water distillation system at
the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona. While the orange juice
membranes work okay, much higher efficiency membranes are being
tested at the New Jersey Institute of Technology by Kamalesh
Sikar, who gave a call-in briefing on these units manufactured
by Advanced Membrane Technologies.
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Wendell Ela, University of Arizona (on the
right), gave an overview of a number of water purification
processes, with emphasis on distillation approaches,
including membrane distillation. During the discussions, Dave
Genet and Russ Genet (Jr.) described their firm, Blue Bottle
Vending, which makes reverse osmosis water purification units.
Dave Kieda, University of Utah, Chair of the Physics
Department (on the left above), gave two astronomy talks, one on
Cherenkov radiation telescopes and the other on stellar
intensity interferometers. These two specialty areas within
astronomy use large, low cost light collectors that are similar
in many respects to the large (22 meter) concentrated solar
power dish made by Herb Hayden et al at Southwest Solar
Technologies. Dave wanted to know if Herb could make similar 22
meter dishes with tighter optical specifications. Herb thought
this could be done. Herb also suggested that a “small” dish
with just a single row of panels might be useful as an 8 meter
light bucket telescope.
Solar intensity interferometry, an area originally
pioneered by Hanbury Brown in Australia, is being revived by
Dave and his colleagues at the University of Utah and is an area
of keen interest to Russ (Sr.) and Bruce Holenstein (unable to
attend). Back in the 1960’s and early 1970’s Hanbury Brown
placed two 6.5 meter multiple mirror telescopes on a circular
track 180 meters in diameter. These mobile telescopes, which
were controlled by analog electronics, used photomultipliers as
the detectors and analog electronics for signal correlation.
They measured the quantum de-correlation of light versus
telescope spacing. They provided the first direct measurements
of the diameters of 32 nearby stars. Modern telescopes, very
high speed solid-state detectors, and fast parallel digital
correlators should allow multiple “light bucket” telescopes to
provide images of the surfaces of nearby stars, as well as
images of close and contact binary and multiple star systems.
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Hanbury-Brown’s two famous “portable” light
bucket telescopes in Narrabri, Australia, (above) exemplify the
on-axis photon hunger of some dedicated science telescopes.
Another area that requires an abundance of low cost photons is
Cherenkov radiation telescopes. When gamma rays, emitted by
highly energetic events in the cosmos, hit the top of the
earth’s atmosphere, they create a shower of particles that, as
they descend through the atmosphere, emit faint, blue, Cherenkov
radiation. This radiation can be detected by an array of light
bucket telescopes, such as the VERITAS pictured below at the
base camp at Mt. Hopkins in southern Arizona where Dave Kieda
and colleagues gather scientific data. |
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