Local Man’s Solar Energy Project Half Finished - April 29th, 1976
May Solve National Energy Crisis
Local Man’s Solar Energy Project Half Finished
By JUDY J. MILLER, RECORD EDITOR
April 29th, 1976
Stanley Meyer tends to get excited when he talks about the solar energy device he is building just outside Grove City. He leans toward the listener, looks him or her directly in the eye, and armed with pen and paper, quickly demonstrates America’s decreasing oil supply and increasing dependence on Arab oil.
By the end of the talk, the listener is convinced of the sorrowful plight of a nation funneling billions of dollars into the Arab nation which is buying up American stock faster than you can write the check for your latest utility bill.
A persuasive salesman, Meyer leaves little doubt that his solar energy device is a revolutionary invention which can eliminate the need for oil base energy products in the home, eliminate high utility bills and avert from a national fuel crisis which Meyer expects to create economic havoc next winter.
A pilot demonstration model of the device, properly called a "solar thermal electric power generation system" is being constructed at the Charles Hughes home, 222 Marlane Drive.
Meyer is about halfway done building the device after about six months of construction work. He began "developing the project about a year ago."
Meyer hopes to demonstrate the model July 4, though he will complete construction within 30 to 60 days, he said. When done, it will be capable of providing all energy needs for the home using free solar energy.
Should Meyer successfully complete and demonstrate the device as an alternate energy system, it may be a phenomenal advancement to the U.S. government which has invested billions—perhaps billions—in the search for alternative energy systems.
What might partially explain why Meyer has hit some dead ends is the fact that he has not received any government help.
His personal letters to President Gerald Ford and Ohio Governor James Rhodes remain unanswered.
An official in the Federal Energy Administration office granted Meyer five minutes of his time, but was apparently not interested in the invention.
He gave up on Ohio government after learning that the state would provide partial funding only if the inventor gives up patent rights to the state.
Giving up patent rights would be about the last thing Meyer would do, “because I want this system to get to the American people,” he said.
Meyer has developed a serious skepticism of government officials who want to buy his patent rights. According to Meyer, utility companies, the government, and a representative of the Arab nation have all offered him money to suppress his system, which would probably significantly reduce the demand for oil.
Who is this man who believes he can overcome the obstacles of greased bureaucracy?
Meyer can best be described as being as intense as the rays he hopes to direct into his solar energy device.
In Meyer’s lens, there is a burning desire to build a system which will benefit the future of the United States rather than fill his own personal coffers.
As a forward-thinking inventor, he wants to prove that through ingenuity, an individual can solve the problems at a large national scale—without sacrificing to corporations.
“The American people are the ones who must be solved the problem,” Meyer maintains, “not the corporations.”
Meyer says the government does not have the flexibility to solve such a monumental energy problem.
Utility companies and government agencies have not helped Meyer in the past, nor will they in the future, but small businesses in the United States and abroad have supplied funds to build his pilot demonstration model.
There are people starting to help,” Meyer said, “but I still need more.”
Meyer says his system, which he began constructing in the basement of his Columbus home in July 1975, is based on “new, but proven principles.”
He received the fastest U.S. patent ever awarded on the system in December 1975, only about three months after filing initial applications.
The system uses plastic lenses about one inch thick constructed in a silo-shaped translucent structure to collect sun rays which can provide enough free, converted energy to meet all the needs of the home including electric, heating, air conditioning, hot water, and synthetic gas for appliances.
The system will include a collector lens assembly, a solar insulator, and a storage cavity, a steam conversion unit for electrical power generation.
The silo-like lens assembly will direct sunlight regardless of its angle through “focusing mode.” The round lens collector can gather rays from any direction while popular flat plate collectors are subject to the angle of the sun's rays.
The heat from the sun’s rays would be retained in the solar insulator cavity, using a principle of “liquid stratification.” The heat would generate enough superheated steam to drive a steam conversion unit which would generate an electrical generator.
A thermal storage cavity would absorb all excess heat for later extended periods of cloudy weather at night.
The new unit has high retention of heat unlike present systems where heat loss through energy transfer.
Meyer said a solar heating system will cost about $3,200 to purchase and install, saving the consumer $17,000 over a 20-year period, according to figures compiled by Meyer.
The electrical system would cost under $10,000 to purchase and install, representing a $29,000 savings to the consumer.
Solar Energy (continued from page 1)
Using the same principles he does on the home solar unit, Meyer says he can draw up some of the estimated 90 percent of petroleum deposits which are only obtainable through secondary recovery processes.
Presently, oil companies use just about as much oil in the equipment to draw up equal amounts of oil deposits.
Meyer can use free solar energy to operate a machine to recover the oil. Meyer hopes by bringing up oil reserves, the U.S. will not be dependent on the Arabs for oil and thus, American money will be kept here and used to stimulate the economy.
Meyer said the system lends to mass production and is cheap to maintain because it has few moving parts.
All parts in the device are obtainable from area suppliers. He expects to begin mass producing the units in October.
But first, he must prove the system works. Whether he succeeds or fails, however, Meyer says at least he will know he tried.
“If I do nothing else, but get people to write letters to their representatives about the energy problem, I will be happy,” Meyer said.
“It’s about time the average American wakes up to the fact that the energy problem is here.”
Should Meyer succeed in his endeavor, Grove City will be known throughout the nation as the “birthplace of solar, electric energy,” Meyer said.