Viability of the Suncone, other similar collectors?

[DrMrLordX]

I ran across the Suncone while looking into thermal solar power generation (parabolic troughs and the like). An overview of it can be found here:

http://www.sriglobal.org/suncone_intro.html

I am not affiliated with SRI Global in any way, shape, or form, so I didn't bring this up to stump for one of their products.

Anyway, does anyone here have any sort of insight into the Suncone? Does it really work, and what sort of limitations does it have based on the collector it uses?

Also, I was wondering how lossy it is in terms of the target's ability to successfully absorb solar radiation and convey it into whatever carrier fluid the Suncone utilizes. The only reason I stumbled upon the Suncone is that I was thinking of an unrelated design involving a solar concentrator focusing radiation into the orifice of a combination hohlraum/dewar, and when I was searching to see if anyone did anything similar, the only thing that came up on Google was the Suncone (apparently one version utilizes a hohlraum as a target).

 

[canis]

I ran across the Suncone while looking into thermal solar power generation (parabolic troughs and the like). An overview of it can be found here:

http://www.sriglobal.org/suncone_intro.html

I am not affiliated with SRI Global in any way, shape, or form, so I didn't bring this up to stump for one of their products.

Anyway, does anyone here have any sort of insight into the Suncone? Does it really work, and what sort of limitations does it have based on the collector it uses?

Also, I was wondering how lossy it is in terms of the target's ability to successfully absorb solar radiation and convey it into whatever carrier fluid the Suncone utilizes. The only reason I stumbled upon the Suncone is that I was thinking of an unrelated design involving a solar concentrator focusing radiation into the orifice of a combination hohlraum/dewar, and when I was searching to see if anyone did anything similar, the only thing that came up on Google was the Suncone (apparently one version utilizes a hohlraum as a target).

Has this thing been built? If its so cheap to build, where is the demonstration model? Same question with the "kinetic water pump".

 

[DrMrLordX]

A good question. Some of the press for it claims that engineering prototypes were built, but I have neither seen nor heard of demonstrations of working models. I was more sort of interested in whether or not anyone could comment on the viability of the proposed designs (there's more than one, though they are quite similar) based on the information made available; nevertheless, it would be nice if they offered a demonstration of the working principles behind the device.

Also, funny you should mention the Kinetic Water Pump they list elsewhere on their site. I was more interested in the Suncone, but it almost seems as though the Suncone were purpose-built to provide heated steam for their Kinetic Water Pump.

 

[DominionSeraph]

A capped cone concentrator with the same efficiency as a parabolic concentrator?
Riiiight.

 

[DrMrLordX]

A capped cone concentrator with the same efficiency as a parabolic concentrator?
Riiiight.

Has anyone tried a cone concentrator like that before? I'm not trying to imply that they should somehow be given the benefit of the doubt . . . it's just that, if they've failed to perform in the past, it would be interesting to know more about that.