Patent ID: 7954322

Claim:
A floating solar energy conversion and storage apparatus, comprising: a horizontally expansive heat storage chamber floating in a body of ambient water and confining a volume of solar heated water; a heat engine including an evaporator for vaporizing a working fluid therein, generating means for utilizing vaporized working fluid to produce electricity, and a condenser downstream of the generating means for condensing the vaporized working fluid therein and returning it to the evaporator; a first circulating loop of heat exchange fluid that is heated by the confined volume of solar heated water in the heat storage chamber and directed to the evaporator to vaporize the working fluid therein, and that is chilled by said ambient water and directed to the condenser to condense the working fluid therein; and an array of heat transfer structures for producing distilled water, each such heat transfer structure including a transparent dome for collecting solar energy and defining a vapor chamber above the water confined in said heat storage chamber, a first heat exchanger suspended in said vapor chamber, and a chilled heat exchange fluid flowing through said first heat exchanger so that water vapor in said vapor chamber condenses on said first heat exchanger to produce said distilled water.