Sun Ball commercial fact or vapourware

[Landline]

Any news on the Sun Ball?

Is it commercial fact or vapourware.

--

 

[Anthony Matonak]

Any news on the Sun Ball?
Is it commercial fact or vapourware.

Apparently it has morphed into the "SunCube", which
I think you can actually buy but I didn't look into
the economics or warranty.

They dumped the entire 'ball' design and have gone
with a forked two axis tracker. They kept the fresnel
concentration and aluminum heat spreader but have
made both of these square, not round.

Anthony

 

[wmbjk]

Any news on the Sun Ball?

Is it commercial fact or vapourware.

The ball concept was hyped way beyond reasonable expectation, even
though the inventor hadn't fully explored the difficulty of it. Once
he discovered some impracticalities he changed to a cube format, which
had to have hurt his credibility and crushed a lot of the original
interest. Traffic at the discussion site
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sunball/ peaked in February. The web
site is down again today, but last time I saw it (perhaps a couple of
weeks ago) it was severely in need of updating. Considering the rocky
start, it's a bit hard to imagine the thing ever taking off. Although
they claim to be "developing" robotic assembly systems
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sunball/message/1640. You'd think they'd
put up some photos of that... ;-)

Wayne

 

[William P.N. Smith]

Presently, the South Australian state government in conjunction with
one of the local electricity utilities is assisting Greg with
accelerated lifetime testing. I take it this means he has some units
built and assembled already. It's winter in South Australia. I reckon
the testing will have to go on throughout the summer before it's done
so perhaps we would know something by March next year. This is just
speculation of course.

Accellerated lifetime testing (depending on _which_ accellerated
lifetime test you do, and what results you get, and what you do with
the results) can be done in a couple of weeks, or could take
significantly longer, maybe up to a year. Of course, you don't
release the early results, because they are failures, and if you are
still at it after a year, maybe you should have started with a better
design... 8*)

It can also be very expensive, which gets back to Alex's thoughts on
capitalization.

 

[Ecnerwal]

this product, are the cells. AFAIK, there's only Boeing, and RWESpace
in Germany. Does anyone else make 'em?

I think Greg's are coming from SpectroLab, or else SpectroLab makes ones
similar to what Greg is using (not all that clear). They sort of have
cells available, perhaps, maybe, not really on a reliable basis for
consumer purchase from what I can tell looking at their site. To quote
their "e-store" page:

"Spectrolab has a variety of solar cells in inventory and available in
limited quantities. Some of these solar cells are rejects from the
production line, others are surplus material from space programs. All
are limited to small batches and sold on a first-come first-serve basis."

http://www.spectrolab.com/stores/

 

[wmbjk]

Some specifics gleaned from the sunball discussion group over the last
few months:

The SunBall aluminium hemisphere could not be manufactured within the
required tolerances. The inaccuracies caused stress on the fresnel
lenses which occasionally cracked. Nothing inherently wrong with the
design, but the metal spinning machine was not up to it, and a new one
was not available.

The "ball" format was a major component of the original concept, and
would only have been dropped as a last resort. Redesigning the
lens-hemisphere interface to allow some tolerance should have been
relatively trivial, and in any case far easier than starting from
scratch... if the balance of the design was correct. I'm thinking that
there were insurmountable impracticalities with the bearing, seal, and
drive mechanics.

Apart from being easier to manufacture, the two axis design is easier
to flat-pack, allowing denser shipping.

Either shape could have been designed for nested shipment. And
similarly bulky items like barbecues, which sell for far less yet are
still profitable, are routinely shipped long distances.

Stow position on-roof is
face-down, reducing wear on the fresnel lens.

The lens "wear" thing smacks of rationalization.

There is a variety of
sizes, incorporating 3X3 or 4X4 cells, etc...The basic cell however
would be the one size.
.
Presently, the South Australian state government in conjunction with
one of the local electricity utilities is assisting Greg with
accelerated lifetime testing. I take it this means he has some units
built and assembled already. It's winter in South Australia. I reckon
the testing will have to go on throughout the summer before it's done
so perhaps we would know something by March next year. This is just
speculation of course.

The website definitely needs updating, and the newsgroup is not updated
for days at a time. I hope and pray this is a good sign. Maybe it
means Greg does not have time to scratch, and that the product is very
much alive. I just wish he would put a few hours into the website. It
would make so much difference. The market hates uncertainty.

My own suspicion is that the idea is undercapitalised and undermanaged.

Exactly. And as is often the case, hype is used to disguise the lack
of capitalization. The outrageous claims of "initially" shipping 3333
sunballs per day look ever more ridiculous with each passing month.

Not that I would know, but I suspect it needs about USD$10-20m and a
multi-disciplinary team of 12 people working for 2 years, to bring a
major product like this to market. I see no evidence that the
development is proceeding on that scale.

Certainly the concept of tracking concentrators based on GaAs
multi-junction cells has great merit. Perhaps not for the domestic
market, but certainly for commercial and industrial grid-connected
rooftops. I would be surprised if someone does not do it.

Perhaps the best way to go would be to market the GaAs cells on their
copper heatsink, to the hobbyist market, and let enthusiasts fashion
their own tracking systems. Inverters are already off-the-shelf. PIC
controllers are off the shelf. Fresnel lenses are off the shelf. The
only thing stopping an army of hobbyists with a website, from evolving
this product, are the cells. AFAIK, there's only Boeing, and RWESpace
in Germany. Does anyone else make 'em?

Wayne

 

[Landline]

Interesting and thanks for the replies.
The amount they could ship was always dream time stuff.

South Australia appears to come up with these things and then pooof they are
gone.

What happened to Silver solar panels. From what I remember they were
supposed to be in the market place well over 12 months ago. Not seen or
heard anything about them. No further information on the Internet that I
can find.

--

On 14 Jul 2006 00:52:58 -0700, "AlexFiedler" <[email protected]>
wrote:

The "ball" format was a major component of the original concept, and
would only have been dropped as a last resort. Redesigning the
lens-hemisphere interface to allow some tolerance should have been
relatively trivial, and in any case far easier than starting from
scratch... if the balance of the design was correct. I'm thinking that
there were insurmountable impracticalities with the bearing, seal, and
drive mechanics.