CAPTURING SUNLIGHT ON AN INDUSTRIAL SCALE WITH A BUBBLE

The major issue with sunlight as a power One way to achieve this end is to use
source is that it is of low intensity very small amounts of low cost materials
compared to conventional industrial in innovative ways. That’s what is
sources of energy. There’s a lot of solar described here. A system that focuses
energy, over 16,000x as much energy as sunlight that’s as simple as blowing a
we need, but its low intensity makes it bubble.
costly to collect. The critical issue then
is to lower the cost of collecting solar
energy.

STATIONARY SOCKET
A transparent sphere forms a stationary socket
within which the concentrator moves. This
socket is tethered securely to the ground at low
cost, and takes all wind loads on the system
MOBILE TENSIONING SPHERE
Another transparent sphere rotates inside the
socket driven by two low power motors
attached to the stationary socket. This sphere
supports a suspension system to keep the
sphere centered and provides tension to the
concentrator it carries.
SOLAR ENERGY
FOCUSED SUNLIGHT
Power towers have been around a long
time. This is a different sort of power
tower. A two-hundred and twenty-five
foot tall tower sits at the center of a four
acre field surrounded by thirty-six
balloons each sixty-six feet in diameter.
Each of the thirty-six balloons focuses
sunlight seventy-one times to a
secondary concentrator at the top of the
tower. Each of the secondary
concentrators reflect the focused light
energy to a common point located near
the base of the tower.
Overall, the four acre field collects eleven
megawatts of solar energy and delivers it
to a spot less than six feet in diameter.
This is achieved by precision optics held
stable by air pressure. The same forces
that form a perfect bubble from soap film
maintain perfectly formed spheres from
thin sheets of tough plastic.
NASA Glenn Research Center 1994
MOBILE CONCENTRATOR
Attached to the tensioning sphere is a
concentrator. This consists of a transparent
top sheet and a reflective bottom sheet.
Pressure is varied in the plenum formed to vary
the sag and in that way, the focal length of the
concentrator.
SOLAR ENERGY
HYDROGEN
Another challenge posed by making
practical use of solar energy is that it is
not always available. The sun goes down
at night and it sometimes grows dark in
bad weather. This means that solar
energy must be converted to some sort
of intermediate fuel for use when the sun
does not shine.

One approach is to make hydrogen from

water by thermochemical processes that
are well-established and very efficient.

In the process shown here water is

heated to form steam by sunlight. The
steam reacts with iron to form rust and
hydrogen. The hydrogen is recovered
and used as a fuel. The rest of the
process recovers the iron and releases
the oxygen as well.
William Mook Newark Ohio 2003

HYDROGEN PRODUCTION HYDROGEN INJECTION HYDROGEN & FUEL BURNING

The four acre site focuses sunlight on a ten
foot diameter reactor. This reactor produces
four-hundred and eighty-four tons of hydrogen
each year. That hydrogen when burned
releases 72,950 million BTU of energy
To store the hydrogen inexpensively we use
depleted gas and oil wells. In interesting
feature of this process is that additional fuels
are recovered along with the hydrogen.
350,000 million BTU of fuel/hydrogen mixture
are recovered each year from each four acre
site
Hydrogen burns under the same conditions as
all conventional fuels. This means that using
the hydrogen to make electricity is a simple
matter of specifying an appropriately sized gas
fired generator. A four acre site generates 7.3
million kWh using hydrogen, 36.9 million kWh
using hydrogen/fuel mix.
 SOLAR VALUE figures. Charges will be adjusted on a
pro-rata basis, based on actual
We offer five installation types in four acre
production.
increments, described below.

We build own and operate the facilities

100 MW gas fired generator
described at sites indicated by the buyer
and provide the buyer with the
commodities described below.
Availability is based upon solar
conditions and other conditions on the
site and production may exceed these

SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEM

PRODUCTS DEPOSIT ANNUAL TERM DEL

Solar Concentrator - Eleven megawatts of $2,500,000 $125,000 10 10

solar thermal energy concentrated 5,000 years mos
times ambient solar intensity.
66 foot diameter concentrator
Solar Hydrogen Production - Four hundred $2,904,000 $290,400 10 10
and eighty-four tons per year at $1,200 per years mos
ton. ($8.39 per million BTU)

Air Independent Electrical Generation - $3,651,000 $365,100 10 18

Seven million three hundred and two years mos
thousand kilowatt-hours per year for $0.10
per kWh.
Thermochemical hydrogen
Hydrogen Flooding - Recovers three $5,873,000 $2,642,850 20 24
hundred thousand million BTU of fuels mixed years mos
with clean burning hydrogen gas providing
20% of the total energy at $8.39 per million
BTU (1.054 giga-joule)

Portfolio Generation - Thirty-six million nine $5,904,000 $2,656,800 20 32

hundred thousand kilowatt-hours per year for years mos
$0.08 per kWh with 20% of the energy
derived from clean burning hydrogen the
balance from conventional fuels.

Hydrogen Flooding & Storage

The figures above are for reference only, actual charges may vary. These are based on units built on four acre
sites with 4.6 hour per day insolation. Electrical generation is 5 MW for each site. Multiple sites will feed larger
generation. Depleted field and hydrogen generation assumed to occur on the same site. There may be charges
to transfer hydrogen which may cause price or term changes depending on details Multiple sites will be
discounted.

Mok Industries LLC / MOKENERGY Corporation / The Mok Companies

Emilio Salvioni Don S. Errigo William H. Mook

1 925 271 4335 Direct 1 925 249 1767 Direct 1 614 403 8912 Cell
1 925 963 4690 Cell 1 408 315 1516 Cell
esalvioni@comcast.net Errigo@errigo.com william.mook@mokenergy.com