20,000$ for a 3.5 kw Stirling System from Infinia Corp
Ramakrishna Kandula
Is this better than Solar PV? It has 24% efficiency and not like SES Systems where they don't offer their technology to
small investor.
Clean Energy Startup Infinia Raises $50 Million To Crank up Manufacturing
Erick Schonfeld
18 comments »
If you thought clean energy financings were hot last year, 2008 promises to be scorching. Case in point: Infinia
today raised a $50 million series B, led by British hedge fund GLG
partners. Existing investors Equus, Khosla Ventures, Bill Gross'
Idealab, and Paul Allen's Vulcan Capital also participated in the round
(after putting in $9.5 million just last June).
Infinia has developed utility-scale renewable energy technology that combines a Stirling engine
with a large solar collector. The Stirling engine, a technology that's
been around since the 19th century, converts the heat into electricity.
Infinia used to be called Stirling Cycles, and has been around for more
than two decades. It has designed Stirling engines as power sources for
NASA missions, implantable artificial hearts, and cooling devices that
the army uses in Iraq. Now, it is focussed exclusively on using the
technology to create 14-foot diameter solar collectors that can
generate 3.5 kilowatts of energy apiece. Gang together 50 or 100 (at
about $20,000 a pop) and you have the energy producing capacity of a
small power plant.
Infinia's Stirling engine is powered by a free-moving piston that requires no lubricants, and thus no maintenance. "What makes this unique is the no-maintenance profile," says chief financial officer, Gregg Clevenger, "the ability to deploy a Stirling engine out in the desert and it is engineered to run for 20 years without you having to do anything." It is also designed to be assembled with common mass-produced parts that an auto-parts supplier could manufacture. Getting the cost down is the key to creating a technology that is competitive with other forms of energy.
Using its Stirling engine technology, Inifnia thinks it can eventually produce electricity 20 to 30 percent cheaper than today's existing solar panels. And in times of peak energy demand—on a hot summer day, for instance—it could even be competitive with electricity from gas-powered or coal-fired plants. Renewable energy isn't going to replace fossil-fuel technologies off the bat, but if they make economic sense for utilities to deploy in a hybrid grid, they will become more cost-competitive over time. With this round, there is $50 million on the table that says Infinia will be one of the companies that makes renewable energy more affordable.
Maverick
I had contacted Infinia corp last year for thri market in India and
they were reluctant at that time. Their proice at that time was quite
high ~ 400,000.00 Rs for complete installtion of one turbine in
India. Now if they have reduced the prices, its good but the overall
cost of one installtion is still quite high. Good for villages
Manmeet
On Feb 12, 7:10 am, "Ramakrishna Kandula"
<ramakrishna.kand...@gmail.com> wrote:
> http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/11/clean-energy-startup-infinia-rai...
> Is this better than Solar PV? It has 24% efficiency and not like SES Systems
> where they don't offer their technology to
> small investor.
>
> Clean Energy Startup Infinia Raises $50 Million To Crank up
> Erick
> Schonfeld 18 comments
> >><http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/02/11/clean-energy-startup-infinia-rai...>
>
> [image: infinia-small.png] <http://www.infiniacorp.com/main.php>
> If you thought clean energy financings were hot last
> Existing investors Equus, Khosla Ventures, Bill Gross' Idealab, and Paul
> Allen's Vulcan Capital also participated in the round (after putting in $9.5
> million just last June).
>
> Infinia has developed utility-scale renewable energy technology that
> combines a Stirling engine
> around since the 19th century, converts the heat into electricity. Infinia
> used to be called Stirling Cycles, and has been around for more than two
> decades. It has designed Stirling engines as power sources for NASA
> missions, implantable artificial hearts, and cooling devices that the army
> uses in Iraq. Now, it is focussed exclusively on using the technology to
> create 14-foot diameter solar collectors that can generate 3.5 kilowatts of
> energy apiece. Gang together 50 or 100 (at about $20,000 a pop) and you have
> the energy producing capacity of a small power plant.
>
> Infinia's Stirling engine is powered by a free-moving piston that requires
> no lubricants, and thus no maintenance. "What makes this unique is the
> no-maintenance profile," says chief financial officer, Gregg Clevenger, "the
> ability to deploy a Stirling engine out in the desert and it is engineered
> to run for 20 years without you having to do anything." It is also designed
> to be assembled with common mass-produced parts that an auto-parts supplier
> could manufacture. Getting the cost down is the key to creating a technology
> that is competitive with other forms of energy.
>
> Using its Stirling engine technology, Inifnia thinks it can eventually
> produce electricity 20 to 30 percent cheaper than today's existing solar
> instance--it could even be competitive with electricity from gas-powered or
Ramakrishna Kandula
What will be the final price of installation of one dish? What will consist of final price?
If they sell the dish for $20,000 = (Rs 7.8 lakh), what will be the final price?
Will making it in large scale reduce cost?
Thanks,
Ramakrishna
Ajay Chandak
We can get reflectors manufactured here much cheaper.
Regards,
Prof Ajay Chandak.
ran...@me.iitb.ac.in
Please see:
http://gjubilee.iitb.ac.in/pages/Rubbia-Mumbai_IIT.pdf
Regards,
Rangan
Ananthakrishna M V
16 Srinagar Colony, Temple Avenue, Chennai 600 015
Phone: (044) 2235 1151 / 2235 2491, Mobile: 98400 96486
Fax: (044) 2235 1070, Email: ana...@mkrajuconsultants.com
Website: www.mkrajuconsultants.com
February 15, 2008
Fr: M V Ananthakrishna, Executive Director
Dear Dr. Rangan:
Thank you for your email with the download link.
Kind regards
Ananth
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