I love this. Industrial processes that realistically would still be needed are often overlooked in Solarpunk, so this is very refreshing and creative. :)
Huge research and development topic here in Germany. Steel forges need tons of energy and that typically comes from non renewable sources. To combat that there are plans to generate large amounts of green hydrogen and oxygen using excess solar and especially wind power. That hydrogen can then be used to directly replace coke since it has the same reducing action as well as a very hot combustion temperature. The oxygen is extremely important for the iron converter feed ventilation and for the oxygen lances.
The future for energy production is solar and wind. And for storage the future is Sodium-Ion and Hydrogen. I honestly love working in renewables and I also love owning my own little power plant and fuelling my e-bike with the energy from my rooftop.
I have also heard about a project in Germany that places tropical fruit greenhouses on top of factories that need/produce excess amounts of heat.
The greenhouse insulates the factory better and the heat is used to grow food. A win-win.
something similar going on here in the netherlands, people are planning to build a windmill park in the sea, and excess energy will get scent to a hydrogen plant so we can do steel work domestically without relying on either coke or importing hydrogen from abroad.
This is one I’ve had on my list for months now, and I finally decided to just go ahead and make it. Back when I was researching solar cookers, solar concentrator, and solar furnaces, I ran into a few really interesting ideas around fresnel lenses. Look them up on youtube and you can find all kinds videos of people melting glass or burning skillsaw blades in half, but the ones that kind of showed me how useful a really-concentrated point of heat could be was this 3D printer for sintering sand into glass objects and this solar rig for smelting zinc or aluminum. Both used fresnel lenses, but were limited by the size of their portable builds.
So here’s my take on something bigger and more permanent, though hopefully still flexible enough to do multiple jobs using concentrated sunlight. The building’s tower houses an observatory-style dome with an irising shutter around a very large fresnel lens. This lens is meant to gather light, but deliberately doesn’t focus it too much, just directs it to another lens, which aims the light straight down. There, on a motorized rig which allows for some adjustment up and down, is the third lens which actually brings it to a searing focal point.
With that focal point reliable and known, the people at the workshop could move several different tools underneath it as necessary, from a crucible for smelting, to a firepot for solar forging, perhaps a glassblowing oven, a 3D sinterer, or the large CNC plasma cutter-style rig shown in the scene.
A set of computers would be set up with light sensors and control over the rotation of the dome, to allow it to track the sun, and the width of the aperture in the shutters, to allow it to regulate the amount of light. The upper limit on the light would be based on how bright the day is, but if they need anything less than full sun, then the opening and closing of the shutters should help with providing consistency. If it starts around half open in full sun and a cloud moves in front of the dome, it might open all the way, then close partially as the cloud leaves. With many minute adjustments, the overall amount of light could remain very consistent down on the ground.
As for the level of focus, I suspect the kerf while cutting would almost definitely be wider than with a modern plasma cutter, but like I said before, people have cut through skillsaw blades with just a lens from a rear-projection TV. So it's possible a larger lens could concentrate even more heat, allowing it to burn through much faster, with less damage to the surrounding material. The tightness of the point would mostly come down to the quality of the lens, as far as I know.
I’ve tried to include a number of controls, caution markings, and red emergency stop buttons, but the one thing I really don’t like about the design as drawn is that it’s not obviously fail-safe. I think ideally there’d be some kind of hanging weight or other mechanism so that when power is lost (not just to the building, as that probably happens fairly often on a less-reliable grid, but to the system’s control unit) the shutters or another light-blocking mechanism slams into place.
Other notes about the scene, I’ve tried to include a diversity of ways to use the sun, the photovoltaic panels for powering the electronics and perhaps some of the tools, a set of fiberoptic solar daylighting systems, which track the sun and pipe light down to the shop floor, along with the simplest version, large windows. This emphasis on daylight should help avoid the risk of electric lights strobing in sync with moving items (such as on a lathe or milling machine) which can cause them to appear stationary and safe to grab onto, though they likely have two sources of light on each just in case. I’ve also included a water wheel, either for power generation, or for the direct motion, to be connected to certain tools or machinery via axles and belts.
This image, like all the Postcards from a Solarpunk Future, is CC-BY, use it how you like.
I recognized this as your work immediately :)
Well done.
Fresnel Lenses are really cool
Damn you for giving me yet another side project 😂
Honestly though I hadn't heard of fresnel lenses before but this is cool as balls!
I’m hoping to try to build a solar forge this summer if I can get a fresnel lense from a rear projection TV. I’ve seen them burn through steel in videos, so it can get small stuff at least hot enough to work into hooks and latches etc. Hopefully at least equivalent to a coffee can forge.
That is a brilliant project. You guys are inspiring me to make something using fresnel lenses because, as it was already stated. These are cool as fuck.
Haha it hurts and amuses me that one of the visual identifiers for the PV is messy wiring 🤣. I like the redundant power sources. Industrial solar heating is definitely something legit architects and engineers are working on. These systems look very industrial so far and a little solarpunk aesthetic would be a nice touch on something pretty solarpunk in principle!
Thank you for your submission, we appreciate your efforts at helping us to thoughtfully create a better world. r/solarpunk encourages you to also check out other solarpunk spaces such as https://wt.social/wt/solarpunk , https://slrpnk.net/ , https://raddle.me/f/solarpunk , https://discord.gg/3tf6FqGAJs , https://discord.gg/BwabpwfBCr , and https://www.appropedia.org/Welcome_to_Appropedia .
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.