US Army Corps of Engineers
North Atlantic Division

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The solar thermal roof at Gaffney Fitness Center at Fort Meade, Md. 

Solar Thermal

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Click here to expand contentClick here to collapse content  What We Do
Solar Energy technology is not the same as solar panel in the sense of photovoltaic technology. Solar thermal electric energy generation concentrates or collects energy from the sun to create heat, and that heat is used to run a heat engines which turns a generator to make electricity or, heats domestic water, or preheats ventilation. The working fluid that is heated by the concentrated sunlight can be a liquid or a gas. Different working fluids include water, oil, salts, air, nitrogen, helium, etc.
Click here to expand contentClick here to collapse content  Why We Do It
Our sun produces 400,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 watts of energy every second and the belief is that it will last another 5 billion years.
Click here to expand contentClick here to collapse content  Goals
  • Establish Regional Team, and identify SME's within region
  • Establish plan to establish the transfer of technical information in the area of Solar thermal within USACE, and to Army and other DoD component personnel
  • Establish and Identify SME's available to provide field assistance
  • Establish Mentorship Program for interns and designers interested in solar thermal renewable technology
  • Establish partnership with similar group in other services/agencies/professional organizations   
  • Establish research topic recommendations to DoD research organizations
  • Establish opportunities for technical knowledge transfer through distance learning
Click here to expand contentClick here to collapse content  Solar Thermal Technologies of Current Interest
  • Transpired Solar Collectors
  • Solar Water Heating
  • Solar Thermal Power Plants
  • Solar Storage