And Old Idea in New Form

The Stirling Engine

Heat expands a gas, pushes a piston which couples to some gears which turns a crankshaft which turns a wheel of copper wire between magnets which makes electricty.

Okay, can't we make the sun be our heat source?

This technology is also the highest efficiency of any solar technology that converts sunlight into grid electricty.

The measured efficiency of the technology shown above is 32% (under ideal conditions)

But beware that Unit capacity is only 25 KW. Still, that's enough to power 8 to 10 houses. One might want to design new residential areas around such devices into areas like the Southwest

The future Desert Sun Farm:

Okay, so how might this technology scale to meet 1.36 TW of nameplate capacity?

Well let's see: