Solar Innovater Infinia Company Gets Additional Funding

Any Remote Area Can Get Reliable Solar Power for $20,000

"What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclestiastes 1:9 True words, when you look at the combination of a nearly two hundred year-old technology with space age materials for turning sunlight into electricity. That is what Infinia Solar Systems has accomplished with its forty year research and development program using Stirling engines, which the company first used as a mechanical heart-assist pump. And with the $50 million round of funding the privately held company received on Monday, the future looks bright for the solar power generation innovation company.

Stirling engines were first patented in 1816 by Reverend Dr. Robert Stirling in Scotland, out of a concern for his parishioners in the coal means working around dangerous steam engines and boilers, which had a tendency to blow up because of the internal pressure. The original design called for moving air at low pressure, back and forth using an external heat source - and how the engine actually worked was a mystery until French physicist released a paper in 1824 titled Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire.

The largest-scale use of the Stirling engine was introduced by his brother in 1840, which used the engines for all of his power needs at Dundee Foundry Company, a steel manufacturer.

With the creation of Bessemer process for the production of high-tensile steel, making it possible to build stronger and smaller boilers, the Stirling engine fell into disuse for nearly 100 years. Then, in the late 1930s, Philips Electronics (Royal Philips Electronics N.V.) began tinkering with the Stirling engine as a means for powering radios in remote areas, using the Stirling engine to generate the electricity using lamp oil, which was available virtually anywhere at the time. Philips nearly abandoned the technology for this purpose, but still manufactures cryogenic units and heat exchangers using Stirling engines.