1. Introduction
2. The Mold/Roller
3. Lucite Manufacturing
4. Construction
5. Dual/Axis Tracking System
6. Louvered Lenses

RaPower3 has seven breakthrough technologies. These technologies combine to create a very low installation cost, a very low price per kilowatt hour and the ability to annually mass produce thousands of megawatts. This is why we are emerging as the leader in renewable energy. There are about 25 patents and about 15 patents pending. These patents center around these SEVEN breakthrough technologies listed below:

The Solar Lenses
The Bladeless Turbine
The Wind Resistant Lens Frames
The Circuit
The Heat Exchanger
The Hydraulic Dual-Axis Tracking System
The Concentrator (Condenser)

Tony Hayward, British Petroleum’s CEO says, "Solar energy needs a technological breakthrough before it will be competitive with standard sources of energy." Photovoltaic (PV) systems are not even close to being competitive and neither are current Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) systems. There are three basic challenges: too expensive, not enough annual capacity and the use of far too much water. This is why RaPower3 is so enamored with the IAUS technology. They have met all three of these challenges and achieved the technological breakthrough so desperately needed by our nation and the world.

CSP is already the acknowledged leader in converting Solar Power to electrical power. IAUS is taking CSP to a new level of production and capacity never before seen. Standard CSP methods include solar dishes, troughs, and heliostats. IAUS’s technology is also a CSP system and operates under similar thermo dynamic principles.

IAUS does not use expensive mirrors. They have produced a Fresnel lens to refract the sun’s rays instead of reflect. The error ratio of reflecting the solar rays from a mirror to its target is four times greater than refracting rays. Mirror-based CSP support trusses, hinges and tracking systems require significantly high tolerances to maintain focus and remain correctly dialed in.

With IAUS’s Fresnel lens, the cost of manufacturing has been drastically reduced due to the absence of tight tolerances. IAUS’s unique solar panels have been independently tested and show efficiencies of over 90%. This lens has produced temperatures from 1,600-1,800 degreed Fahrenheit with a 30+ inch diameter focal point in the field.

Diagram showing the IAUS Refracting technology.

Because of proprietary considerations, detail cannot be given in this section. However, suffice it to say the first challenge was to build a mold or roller that would enable mass production of lenses. It is thought to be a scientific impossibility. No longer. IAUS has done it. A finished mold/roller is a copper cylinder eight feet in length and about 22-inches in diameter. The cylinder is then shipped to Lucite for manufacturing.

RaPower3 Chief Director of Operations, Greg Shepard on the left.
The 89,000-pound mold making machine is in the background.

Lucite International is a global leader in design, development and manufacture of acrylic-based products. Today, acrylic-based products touch our lives in so many ways. From contemporary baths, showers and spas, furniture and interior accessories to mobile phone screens, vehicle lights and signage, acrylic is now quite literally everywhere. And now . . . the production of plastic/acrylic solar panels.

These panels can be mass-produced. Current production runs indicate that just one mold can easily produce 350 megawatts per year.

IAUS has the capability of making many molds per year and Lucite has no limitations on the number of molds that can go on their production lines. Specifically, the Lucite panels are made up of a very durable, engineering grade monomer material that has been known to last more than 60 years. These panels are also 100% recyclable.

When compared to the complexities of the construction of hydroelectric or nuclear power plants, the construction of IAUS solar panels is at a kindergarten level. The individual panels fit together in a circular pattern that spans close to 39-feet in diameter. When finished, it looks kind of like a satellite dish. The circular dish is then mounted on a steel tower about fifty feet high.

Four of these circles are mounted to a single tower equipped with dual-axis, automated tracking. This means no matter where the sun is in the sky, the tracking system will position the panels to receive a direct hit from the sun. This creates maximum efficiency.

IAUS has designed and tested their dual-axis tracking structure to follow the sun, monitor wind-speed, and measure the sun’s energy per square meter. The design and manufacturing process for this dual-axis tracking system has been built with high volume and mass production in mind.

Here's a video of IAUS' new proprietary hydraulic pivot. This unique hydraulic pivot was developed for the purpose of replacing the gear IAUS has been using on the east/west pivot of its dual-axis solar tracking system.

Due to the wingspan and size of the solar panel truss assembly the IAUS' gear system presented potential pitfalls that the company desired to avoid in the future. IAUS' new hydraulic drive reduces the pivot mechanism's cost, increases accuracy, avoids a potential large-scale mass-production manufacturing bottleneck, and allows for both ultra-slow (tracking) as well as high-speed (resetting or turning out of the wind) movement.

The first video is a short animated feature of the preliminary design prior to the actual fabrication of the components. The video starts out with a top down view and finishes with a view from the side.

The second video shows a test run of the actual manufactured and installed drive. Some adjustments were made from the original design during fabrication and installation such as lengthening the ram drives and reducing the number of rings and hydraulic rams by nearly half.

This gear replacement is a unique landmark pivot design for dual-axis tracking that, to our knowledge, has never been done. The new component took longer to refine than expected but has not disappointed.

Dual-axis tracking produces an increased number of solar hours per year. An IAUS solar power plant can produce up to 30%+ more annual energy than a fixed plate PV solar power plant of the same size.

IAUS's new louver design eliminates nearly 80% of the maximum wind load pressure
on both the panels and the steel structure.

Figure 1: Louvers in the Closed Position

In the process of wrapping up its last stage of engineering and design for large-scale deployment of its dual-axis solar tower, IAUS added a new feature to its system that eliminates nearly 80% of the maximum wind load effects. This latest advancement furthers IAUS's advantages in the key areas of price and longevity.

Figure (1) and Figure (2) are the latest engineered drawings of IAUS's new louvering solar panels. Figure (1) depicts the panels fixed in their standard operating position. Figure (2) demonstrates the panels louvering or opening up when they are perpendicular to a high-speed wind. IAUS's new louver design eliminates nearly 80% of the maximum wind load pressure on both the panels and the steel structure. This new addition significantly decreases the weight and cost of the steel structure as well as the dual-axis tracking drive system. It also reduces the material handling, shipping installation and maintenance costs. In addition, lenses should almost never incur damage from extreme wind conditions. These new hinged panels are currently being installed in the field.

Figure 2: Louvers in the Open Position

Figure 3
Figure 4

Figure (3) and Figure (4) are actual screen snapshots of IAUS's proprietary automated dual-axis tracking drive control software. This software and combined control system was developed by IAUS and is designed to monitor thousands of solar towers at one time. By simply entering in the fixed GPS coordinates of each tower, IAUS's control system instantly knows where the sun is in relation to the tower within 0.001 degree of accuracy.

The control system also monitors wind speeds, wind direction, cloud cover, temperatures, watts of energy from the sun per square meter and other data. In addition to the new solar panel louver design, which allows the panels to open when facing extreme winds, the control software will still automatically stow or turn the panels out of the wind when average wind gusts begin reaching a constant speed of 45.