Daily Pioneer News

Mechanical engineering students (from left to right) David Biddick, Brandon Schele, Adam Gonnering and Aaron Gietzel (Chris Rommes is not pictured) are designing a revolutionary integrated vertical solar concentrator system.

PLATTEVILLE - The concept of solar energy collection has been recorded in books since the mid 1860s when a teacher concerned about dependence on coal developed a direct conversion of solar radiation into mechanical power. Technological advances over the past 145 years led to the development of vertical solar concentrators. University of Wisconsin-Platteville seniors David Biddick, Aaron Gietzel, Adam Gonnering, Brandon Schele and Christopher Rommes are working hand in hand with their sponsor to design an integrated vertical solar concentrator.

The assignment employs radiation heat gathering techniques. Anticipated use of the collection configuration includes hotels, banks and other businesses with sun facing elevations. "The design will be primarily used on the south side of a building in the Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison and Denver areas. All are places within a certain solar region similar to Platteville. It's easy to optimize the system for one day, but much more difficult to attempt to do it for an entire year," said Gonnering. The buildings will have interior tracking reflectors that concentrate sunlight onto stationary heat pipe evacuated tube collectors. "Liquid is heated by a vacuum heat tube and then moved through a heat exchanger. The heat eventually passes through a heat exchanger and is converted into steam," elaborated Schele.

The collected solar heat can be used to make hot water, steam and may even be used in cooking applications. "We have limited space to work with and are modeling the design off window placement specified for most motels. The collectors utilize the space between two room units which is about 80 inches wide by nine feet tall and will be linked along the building to other units," said Gietzel.

There are eight combinations of variables the students are analyzing to determine which is the most efficient arrangement for the example solar region. Variations on the system include use of glass windows instead of lenses, mirrors placed behind the collectors, different spacing of tubes and possibly heating fewer tubes to higher temperatures. "We plan to use a design with a combination of lenses and mirrors. We are currently evaluating redirection of light via lenses to determine the best configuration," said Gonnering. "The complexity and number of variables for modeling the system calls for many assumptions. Also, the amount of design changes has been challenging," commented Biddick. UWP professor Lynn Schlager has helped the students understand the difficult concepts associated with their project, especially since he works on similar projects and is knowledgeable about heat concentrators.

The use of integrated vertical solar concentrators is a key cost-saving method to reduction of large building utility bills, and conserves fuel efficiency. "This was a great project for us. It was a very realistic example of dealing with a client who may not know all the technical details necessary to complete a project of this magnitude. We had to adapt our communication styles to clearly explain our findings which will be helpful for our sponsor in future solar design projects," concluded Rommes.

Gietzel, Gonnering and Rommes are mechanical engineering majors. Gietzel is the son of Sue Gietzel of Horicon and Bob Gietzel of Oxford. Gonnering is the son of Leon and Shirley Gonnering of Marshfield. Rommes is the son of Gary and Kathryn Rommes of Holmen. Biddick and Schele are mechanical engineering majors with a minor in mathematics. Biddick is the son of Marsha and Joseph Biddick of Madison. Schele is the son of Gary and Kathy Schele of Beloit.

Contact: David Kunz, mechanical engineering, (608) 342-1431kunzd@uwplatt.edu

Prepared by: Rachael Lehr, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194,lehrr@uwplatt.edu