Thermal solar systems are having a heyday with several announcements of installations in the US and in Spain. International Automated Systems, Inc. (IAS) announced that it had secured a site for its first 1 MW concentrating solar power plant. Once in operation, the company hopes to expand beyond several 100 Megawatts. The company claims its breakthrough solar power technology may become the first solar to compete with gas. Low-cost energy produced by the company's new patented and patent-pending solar technology can be used to generate electricity or produce clean fuels such as hydrogen and green methanol (gasoline replacements) at a competitive price.
The plant will be located in Southern California. IAS expects to complete construction of the solar power plant during the first quarter 2006. According to the company website; "IAS’s unique thin-film lens focuses the sun’s energy, producing super-heated steam for power generation. IAS’s panels are inexpensive, efficient, and require virtually no maintenance. Typical solar reflector panels (e.g. solar dishes, troughs, heliostats) are expensive and require a great deal of maintenance to sustain a solar focal point. Once installed, IAS’s lenses need no further adjustment."
According to a July 27 press release; "IAS's unique thin-film solar panels can be produced at a fraction of the cost of today's photovoltaic solar panels. IAS is on schedule to begin mass production of its solar panels by September 2005. Once in production, IAS will be able to turn out nearly 200 megawatts of solar panels yearly, nearly 10 times greater capacity than a $100 million photovoltaic fabrication plant."
Not really much technical information about their equipment. The company, founded in 1988, has yet to report any revenue. It sounds like they may generate steam directly, without using a heat transfer fluid as most trough collectors do. They are developing a variety of high technology equipment including a bladeless turbine being demonstrated at various geothermal power plants. They could be using this turbine to generate electricity. They do not say that they have sold the equipment, so it may be possible that they plan on paying for the units by selling the electricity. That would be a good deal if the units are as reliable and inexpensive as they claim.
International Automated Systems, Inc., Salem, UT
IAS press Release, 7/27/05
IAS Press release, 9/29/05
Technocrati tags: solar, concentrating solar, thermal solar, Energy, renewable, alternative energy
I stumbled across IAS a couple months ago as well. Their bladeless turbine is intruiging as it purports to be more efficient and can operate at higher temperatures than traditional turbines. Back then they had no contracts for their solar collectors so maybe this is the beginning of some actual revenue for them. I wonder how they were able to stay alive from 1988 to 2005 without posting any revenue!
Posted by: JesseJenkins | October 01, 2005 at 04:54 PM
Oh, those guys. The ones with the picture "turbines" that look like rolls of something and have no piping for inlets or outlets.
Hold onto your wallets.
Posted by: Engineer-Poet | October 02, 2005 at 02:31 PM
fact or fiction,re: iaus bladeless turbine and purported contract with charlie vaughn of solar ren.energy llc,nv...does anyone know vaughn or have a contact number?
Posted by: bob cooper | April 05, 2006 at 03:38 PM
Looks like a fresnel lens i think? these cheap, molded plastic lenses make great concentrators, just waiting for the right app.
Posted by: richard gagne | November 16, 2006 at 11:14 AM
This is an obvious scam! All this company seems to be doing is "inventing" incredibly "promising" technologies and writing press releases about them to boost their stock.
There is no info about this deal from anywhere else than IAS.
IAS has been involved in several law-suits for their scams before. As JesseJenkins noted, hold on to your wallets.
Posted by: Mattias | November 18, 2006 at 11:05 PM
These guys are still struggling to make something out of this technology. I recently went to see what they are doing. They will demonstrate what they have built. Their system actually looks like it could work. However, they have a questionable past, so there's no obvious outcome here. It's easy to assume the worst, but they seem far enough along in the development phase that something "might" actually come from this.
Posted by: Dave Goodrich | August 07, 2007 at 12:57 AM
This company doesn't seem to DO anything. I investigated their site to see if they have evidence of their revolutionary solar-thermal system utilizing cheap lenses and it appears that they have no data on it, nor do they have a working model. There is one solar concentrating lens demo video where they burn a piece of wood. News flash: solar concentrating systems exist, check out the working SEGS system by FPL Energy, Inc. which provides >300MW of power in California. Solar thermal concentrators have been shown to achieve temps as high as 5000K, which means burning a piece of wood is inconsequential to say the least. These people are jokers- if their technology is so great I wonder why they don't show it in use? They don't seem to have any investors, either.
Posted by: Ele-tric Aura | September 12, 2007 at 03:56 PM
Clean energy is populated by many con artist more interested in selling a product than making it work.
It stands to reason that big energy like FPL will be the mostly likely to make solar work.
Posted by: Kit P | September 12, 2007 at 06:55 PM
The green part about the bladeless turbine is very interesting...
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Posted by: steve | March 08, 2008 at 06:35 PM
i have read all comments above they are nice and this energy blog is very informative.
Most places in the high plains have plenty of solar energy available to meet some, or all of your needs.A solar system is ideal for urban areas where building codes prevent a wind turbine.
Posted by: Solar panel | Solar Energy | | April 08, 2009 at 04:51 AM
I'm working on a green house project. I'm really interested by this Thermal Solar System and I really would like to know if it's reliable for single housing application.
thanks a lot!
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Posted by: Harvesting Clean Energy | October 06, 2010 at 06:43 AM
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Posted by: bob | January 25, 2011 at 01:57 AM
Solar thermal energy, which is the oldest way of tapping power from the sun, has been used for years in heating applications for households. Although its counterpart solar photovoltaic seems to be getting more attraction.
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