Lowest Capital Cost
Enclosed trough systems are much lower-cost to build than systems with exposed mirrors, allowing GlassPoint to deliver zero carbon steam at the lowest possible cost.
Solar thermal systems use large mirrors to focus sunlight onto pipes containing water. Commonly, these are placed outside which exposes them to the elements and makes them vulnerable to strong wind loads and increasingly common extreme weather events.
To circumvent damaging exposure, GlassPoint’s enclosed trough design places the mirrors indoors so that they are protected from the wind.
The enclosed trough design places the mirrors indoors so that they are protected from the wind. This allows them to be of low cost and lightweight construction. The side walls of the enclosure still need to…
Lowest Capital Cost
Enclosed trough systems are much lower-cost to build than systems with exposed mirrors, allowing GlassPoint to deliver zero carbon steam at the lowest possible cost.
Solar thermal systems use large mirrors to focus sunlight onto pipes containing water. Commonly, these are placed outside which exposes them to the elements and makes them vulnerable to strong wind loads and increasingly common extreme weather events.
To circumvent damaging exposure, GlassPoint’s enclosed trough design places the mirrors indoors so that they are protected from the wind.
The enclosed trough design places the mirrors indoors so that they are protected from the wind. This allows them to be of low cost and lightweight construction. The side walls of the enclosure still need to be strong enough to withstand the wind, but that requires far less material, than reinforcing every mirror individually, as each wall protects many individual troughs.
Overall, enclosed trough systems have less than half the amount of metal, glass and concrete than in an outdoor system of equivalent size.
GlassPoint has been developing and improved enclosed trough technology over the last ten years, resulting in a portfolio of over 100 issued and pending patents.