Patent ID: 7281381

Claim:
A mechanical thermo-voltaic solar power system, comprising: a solar light collector array comprised of a plurality of light collector elements mounted to a mounting board, each said light collector element being further comprised of: a primary collection lens for collecting light from a light source; one or more secondary fine-focus lens for receiving focused light from said primary collection lens; an optical housing for structurally holding said primary and secondary lenses, said housing further enclosing said focused light from said collection lens; an optical conduit coupled to the output of said secondary fine-focus lens for delivering collected light to a mechanical generator; a light collector alignment means, said alignment means having two or more collector alignment photocells, said photocells being attached to a servomotor subassembly mounted at the base of said light collector element for aiming said light collector element at said light source for maximum light collection; and an alignment processing circuit mounted in said servomotor subassembly for automatically aligning said light collector element for maximum output; a mechanical generator, said generator comprised of; a heat chamber, said heat chamber receiving a plurality of said optical conduits from said light collector array, said conduits connected to said heat chamber by optical attaching means; a gas burner mounted below said heat chamber for applying auxiliary heat to said heat chamber; and an electrical generator mechanically coupled to a rotatable output of said mechanical generator for providing a source of electrical power; and a storage and retrieval unit for receiving electrical power from said electrical generator, said storage and retrieval unit further comprising: a power distributor, a first input of said distributor being coupled to the output of said electrical generator, a first output of said power distributor providing electrical power to an application load, and a second output of said power distributor supplying power to the electrodes of a water separator, said water separator being filled with water, said water separator separating said water into hydrogen and oxygen; a hydrogen pump, an input of said pump coupled to a hydrogen output of said water separator; a hydrogen tank, an input of said tank being coupled to an output of said hydrogen pump, an output of said hydrogen tank being connected to said gas burner for supplying auxiliary heat to said system; a fuel cell, an input of said fuel cell being connected to the output of said hydrogen tank, an output of said fuel cell being connected to a second input of said power distributor; and an additional stationary photocell sensor for measuring the ambient light level, an output of said additional photocell sensor being used to switch said system between storage and retrieval modes.