The Mission

The promise of the mini power tower: a paradigm shifting disruptive technology. It is such a paradigm shift that there aren’t really proper words in English to describe the paradigm shift at least yet … so let’s try:

The central theme of our product  is that it can be marketed as real-estate. Which can be taken as saying we have a product/commodity that lasts forever. This gets a lot of push back when I present our product as real-estate. Hey things in this world don’t last forever right?

However real-estate itself is just such a commodity.  A relatively small amount of maintenance investment keeps the real-estate commodity valuable for all practical purposes: indefinitely, infinitely or perpetually or say it this way: real-estate is perpetually refurbish-able or real-estate is a refurbish-able product/commodity. i.e. The Perpetually Refurbish-able Commodity. A perpetual product/commodity/machine would have this following important quality to be defined to be analogous or tantamount to real-estate:

Perpetually Refurbishable Commodity

To be a Perpetually Refurbishable Commodity the portion of the product that can wear out must be quite small compared to the overall outlay or expense.  That is, it can be cheaply refurbished within the scope of regular maintenance and that it’s costs are covered within the overhead budget by proceeds generated over its perpetual life. Proceeds could be in revenue from sales of hydrogen, electricity, services or other products delivered.

In the case of our product the Mini Power Tower, this is possible because it’s made primarily from aluminum and deployed in the desert. Aluminum’s unique self-sealing oxidation quality is the fundamental reason* we can call our product real-estate or in other terms a perpetually refurbishable commodity, 

All we have do is observe the condition of the aluminum of our 30 year old prototype and we see that it is still in pristine condition after all these years.  Its passed the all important:  “the test of time.” We’ve engineered our product to pass this test.   Yes some things will need  refurbished at reasonable time intervals but they are small compared to the overall outlay and are covered buy the budget and the income generated by the system by design. Call it clever planned obsolescence if you will.  But this is the whole point of our mission.

the second big reason we have a product that can be classified as perpetually refurbishable is the Automatic Servicing System. our efficient way to manage mirrors.

The proving ground… what’s the next step? Testing testing testing.  What is our test equipment?

The STTF – Our First Product to enter the Market

One of the things we’ve been thinking about for a while is the idea of a “Solar Thermal Test Facility (STTF)” as a potential small business in and of itself.

The name “solar thermal test facility” was a widely used label, going back to the 70s, for facilities then funded by the Department of Energy for performing high temperature experiments with various kinds of concentrating solar collectors. There was a power tower version in Albuquerque which incidentally had the largest elevator in the world at the time for getting the experiments to the top of the tower. There were smaller versions with parabolic dishes. (Name the facility) There was even a small heliostat version in Atlanta, Georgia it was an implementation of Giovanni Francia’s heliostat featured in national geographic (Show Photo)

In our Plan* , “NASUNCO Plan” see downloads section. We refer to getting such a facility going as a potential way to generate income early on before wider sales are possible. There are many different possible applications of our product, the Mini Power Tower from electric generation, producing hydrogen, making hot water, molding plastics, melting metals, to artistic applications such as firing poetry, the list goes on and on.   All these receiver types will need testing, especially once the word gets out about the Mini Power Tower. There will be manufacturing entities that will want to partner and testing will be important to these partners… Perhaps that’s you?  These tests will be important in making sure that the receiver technologies also meet the standard of a perpetually refurbishable commodity. These receivers will need safety testing, UL testing, quality control testing, and quality assurance. These are all important aspects of testing as we, our future partners move forward. One STTF wont be enough!

One of our central goals is how can we get such a facility operational relatively soon, this is a funding problem primarily. It does not need all the parts to be functional. The robots for example are not necessary to become an operational solar thermal test facility, although they will greatly enhance performance of the facility.  The goal is to use testing to get us to the next step the hydrogen farm itself our primary goal.

The Hydrogen Farm and  The Hosted Hydrogen Farm

Down the road, once our product is tested and ready for market, the idea of hosting for remote  owners of solar collectors on my or other remote property.  These remote owners could come from anywhere, back east for instance. Lets introduce the idea of the role of the host:

Hosting

Hosting – It’s a profit-sharing concept. For example, if someone from the east wished to purchase a solar collector and have it hosted remotely there could be a 90% – 10% profit sharing split between the Guest/ (Equipment Owner)and the Host (Land Owner) of the proceeds from hydrogen literally forever because, now  as you know, our engineering design criteria requires that this solar collector be perpetually  refurbish-able. 

How does this profit-sharing concept relate to our solar thermal test facility (STTF)? We can leverage this idea of host owner profit sharing to fund the STTF facility. but first lets understand roles:

Role of the Host – First of all the Host is the Land owner. They are the decision makers. The host tracks the weather daily so that if necessary the mirrors can be stowed prior to rain or wind. The host clicks [Stowe] on a cell phone app or other button provided. Easy enough. Then redeploy automatically, this happens in the morning unless the host intervenes.

The host is responsible for the robots. The host makes sure that all robots are in good operating condition. The host keeps spares in the event there are robot issues. the Host ships them to be repaired if necessary or perform repairs themselves. The host also corrects problems with The Mini Power Towers such as easy to perform motor replacements if necessary. Maintenance costs are shared between host and Guest Owners based on the same percentage. Under certain well defined conditions the host may bill the guest. We are building this equipment to the highest engineering standards so few anomalous problems are expected but the host is responsible for resolving those promptly. The host is responsible for maintenance but the host may bill the quest owner for regular maintenance of their units and robots as described in the quest roles.

Role of the Guest – The quest getting 90% of the profits must budget for the routine refurbishing cycles. Some refurbishing cycles will be as short as 10 years. some every 20 years some every 30 years. The aluminum 95% of the install weight is not expected to need maintenance when properly installed in arid or desert regions.

list of components that will need regular maintenance cycles.

every 10 years

• motor replacement – approximately one person day per unit (every 10 years).
• truss alignment slides – one person day per unit.
• robot batteries – a couple minutes every 10 years.
• robot motor replacement – approximately ,5 person days per unit (every 10 years).

every 20 years

• mirrors
• gear box springs
• control boards
• robot pv

every 30 years

• nylon bearings – nylon bearings in conjunction with truss element rebuilds. We were buying these nylon bearing for 2 cents each when they first came out in the 1980’s. We have 10,000 in stock to this day that was a great day when we found those!
• gears

not yet determined

• receiver – depends on the receiver. Our design criteria is every 10 years.

STTF #1

In the case of the very first STTF We’re the host and assume all maintenance responsibilities but the profit split is still 90% Guest and 10% host

For our STTF to be completed there are 120 trusses to be built to get the facility fully functional, including motors, mirrors and wiring control boards, and software. , We already have the platform (tower and support structure)mostly ready. There are 4 mirrors per truss for a total of 480 mirrors.

Learning from the hydrogen farming profit sharing example we’ve introduced; each truss could have its own remote owner (guest) who shares in the profit of the STTF (solar thermal test facility).

We would expect that we could charge $60 dollars per day to costumers utilizing the facility to develop their receivers. $60 times 365 days a year is $21,900 per year. Not bad income. There would be other charges such as if they need my time or the help of a technician or our local machine shop facilities. The base cost would be $60 dollars per day on a one-month contract. If less time is needed then charges would be higher. One day $100 per day. One week $80 per day.

The cost of a truss (The Basic Element) we’ve estimated to be about $400 initially. So total cost would be $,48,000 dollars for the first STTF. So, we’re looking for 120 people in the world willing to put up $400 dollars each to get this facility fully up and running.

Its not a grant or a gift its an Investment!

What the owner of one truss element gets is almost $200 a year back once the facility is operational. But this is an perpetually refurbish-able commodity. So maintained it will produce income as long as products are being developed. I think that’s a pretty good investment. What’s more we’ve improved this deal by creating an option. This could happen down the road. This is where the owner/guest could trade their ownership of the truss for stock options, ownership in the company. Or if they want, they could have the truss to hang on their wall. But profit sharing would end at that point if they chose either of these options.

In addition the guest along with the 119 other guests control the STTF. it belongs to the STTF guests and any issue will be settled by voting among the guest owners. This could be for example: The guest owners may choose to move the STTF to a new local that is your decision as the group that owns the STTF. You’ll get everything you need including the supporting stationary frame.

The truss elements will have a name plate with a serial number and the name of the owner. To make a wonderful keep sake, commemorating their important contribution. There would be a certificate of ownership and digital photos and a ceremonial YouTube video.

So here’s the hook: would you buy something for $400 dollars that re-pays back $200 dollars per year perpetually to you and your heirs, has an option for stock built into the deal and is a great thing for our planet and the USA?

To make things even better we are inviting guest owners to come here and build with us. When you build your own truss element under our guidance then we will only charge $200 per truss element. What a great way to participate: come and camp we’ll have 24 hour access to our agrarian community center and we’ll have lots of fun learning, doing, and dreaming together about a better world with the Mini Power Tower.

What is the Lesson Here?

We have products for sale, all products being perpetually refurbishable commodities by design. They happen to be solar collection devices. 

We are learning that such commodities are synonymous to real estate financially speaking, we call them perpetually refurbishable commodities.

Everything about all our products reinforce this idea of a perpetually refurbishable Solar Collector. Which is completely different from what we have now in this world available in solar products. Solar products available today, are not perpetually refurbish-able they all are sadly expired in 20 to 25 years with no value left. The reason for their inevitable failure is the encapselents of the photovoltaic cells. UV burns the encapselent out.

I’m a fan of photovoltaics many of my friends are off-grid’ers and I love them and their dedication to living well with little. I admire folks who’ve put solar panels on their homes, so many these days are doing their part to make this world better. We also expect to have PV in our Mini Power Tower systems to provide the base operational power for the robots and the Mini Power Tower control, but within this guideline: PV cost must be small compared to the overall outlay as we described above in the definition of a Perpetually Refurbishable Commodity.

We are different! our products are designed and built to retain their value.  That’s our  promise, our goal, our guarantee and our mission

Perpetually Refurbishable is our Engineering Standard!

Our Perpetually Refurbishable Products

Available now (see products page for more details)

• the STTF element
• the STTF
• Booking time on the STTF

Coming Soon

• Hydrogen farms – Solar farm real-estate that generates positive income perpetually once up and running and properly managed, see Jake Moon’s 5 million man plan, find out more!
• All the rest– All the other possible perpetually refurbishable product combinations from kilns to electricity to hot water. To foundries. To additional STTFs. The list is endless.

Low Cost

This is the disruptive part as far solar and other energy markets are concerned. We’re going to be cheaper then everyone else at producing energy once we get into volume production. Low cost is a feature of the Mini Power Tower. Here’s the clue: The mini Power Tower itself is approximately a half a ton of aluminum about 1000 lbs. or about $2500 dollars in raw material costs for the aluminum extrusions that it is constructed from. We think we can make these units that produce electricity or hydrogen for less then $20,000 each including robots if manufactured and installed in substantial volumes.

Here’s the second clue: Give or take a few thousand $20,000 is the cost of an economy car weighing in the neighborhood of 2 tons. Again the Mini Power tower will weigh just a little more then a half ton about 1/4th the weight of car. Suggesting strongly that $20,000 is not unreasonable for the cost of a Mini Power Tower in production volumes. There are many hurdles and milestones to reach as we start to get there.

There are other things, of course, that drive the costs up: electronics, motors, wiring, mirrors. But, even the mirrors are aluminum based as are the control motor boxes and gears. We are even going to be able to cast those gears and boxes using the Mini Power Tower’s focus to melt Aluminum and cast parts with. All these components can come from recycled aluminum cans. Casting Aluminum has a whole product potential for the Mini Power Tower. Probably one of its most profitable. In this kind of system 40% to 90% of the solar energy can go into the melting process. Three to four times better then electric or hydrogen production which range between 10% and 30%. By the way you can get hot water at 90% too!

Fixed Focal Point Technology

This is an advantage of Power Tower Systems over for example parabolic dishes. In the case of Parabolic dishes , the focal point must move with the sun and everything has to be supported by the dish itself. The tower in the mini Power Tower is stationary and can be utilized and supported independently keeping costs down while facilitating many industrial process like the casting of aluminum we mentioned above. Its not unreasonable to expect agrarian kinds of business to move to the desert to take advantage of the Mini Power Tower low energy cost for these industrial processes.

Simulation

We have been simulating what happens at the focal point since the early 80’s. The images below are two different images of the same thing. Both represent a one foot by one foot receiver, hash marks are every 3 inches in this case. The blue lines represent 480 mirrors with 4 inch trapezoids superimposed on top of each other. the second photo represents the energy density. It’s a heat flux contour map. The 4 inch trapezoids are a representation of the mirrors being parabolic, they basically represent a 4 inch circle on the receiver for an additional 16 to one concentration from each mirror. The trapezoids are intended to be a rough approximation. We’ll tune our simulation with field data as it comes in.

In the receiver simulation shown below most of the energy is going to the center 6″ by 6″ square of the receiver. It is 480 square feet focused down to 0.25 square feet. that’s 1920 to 1 concentrations or Just about 2000X on the average shown below. With spots more then 2000X: the deep red on the heat flux contour map.

Coming soon to this space will be more and more receiver simulations as they become available. Different systems will have different requirements. For example a foundry might only need 400X to 500X to operate cost effectively. Flat mirrors can replace parabolic or curved in this case. Keeping the concentration lower.

Also to be simulated is the 4 Mini Power Tower Models. They differ by the number of control motors employed:

• 20 Control pairs 40 control boxes
• 40 Control pairs 80 Control Boxes
• 60 Control pairs 120 Control Boxes
• 120 Control pairs 240 Control Boxes

All our current investment products are the 4th model (120 Control pairs 240 Control Boxes). The more motors that are employed the more accurate the focus, We’ll add this simulation data here soon! Fewer motor control boxes then of course lower price for those models. Hopefully we’ll be adding all the models soon.

Keep your eyes on this space!

Calibration

We have a robot called the “Tender” which tunes the Mini Power Tower. A tender is only needed for about every 25 to 100 units. It’s a service we supply every 2 to 4 weeks depending on how fast the seasons are changing. You want to make sure there is a tender near you. It does its work at night. We’ll have more details on calibration soon so keep your eyes on this space too!

Didn’t get enough yet? There’s more coming to the Mini Power Tower product highlights section be sure to come back!