The “Small Scale Solar Organic Rankine Cycle for Rural Cogeneration” project, which focuses on electricity and hot water for remote off-the-grid health clinics and schools, has won the 2010 ConocoPhillips-Penn State Energy Prize.

The prize, co-sponsored by Houston’s ConocoPhillips and Pennsylvania State University in State College, Pa., recognizes new ideas and original feasible solutions in three areas to improve the way the United States develops and uses energy:
  • Developing new energy sources.
  • Improving energy efficiency.
  • Combating climate change.
The winning group, Matthew Orosz and Team STG, developed a solar generator that could bring electric power to remote areas around the world. As in large solar-generating plants, mirrors feed the sun’s energy to run a small Rankine engine using a low temperature fluid to generate electricity and waste heat to provide hot water. These cogeneration plants also could be used in remote off-the-grid locations in the United States.

More information about the prize and the finalists is available at www.conocophillips.com/energyprize.

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