Rolling thunder-integration of the SOLO 161 Stirling engine with the CPG-460 solar concentrator at Ft. Huachuca

Project "Rolling Thunder" is a dish/Stirling demonstration project at Ft. H uachuca, an U.S. Army fort in southeastern Arizona. (Huachuca means "rollin g thunder" in Apache.) It has been supported by the Department of Defense ( DoD) Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP). As p art of a 1992 SERDP project, Cummins Power Generation, Inc. (CPG) installed a CPG 7-kW(e) dish/Stirling system at the Joint Interoperability Test Comm and (JITC) in Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. The primary objective of the SERDP "Di sh/Stirling for DoD Applications" project was to demonstrate a CPG 7-kW(e), dish/Stirling system at a military facility. Unfortunately, Cummins Engine Company decided to divest its solar operations. However, as a direct resul t of Ft. Huachuca's interest in the Cummins dish/Stirling technology, Sandi a retrofit a SOLO 161 Stirling engine on the CPG-460 at Ft. Huachuca. Project "Rolling Thunder - The SOLO 161 Demonstration at Ft. Huachuca" has been a challenge. Although, the SOLO 161 PCU has operated nearly flawlessly and the CPG-460 has been, for the most part, a solid and reliable componen t, integration of the SOLO PCU with the CPG-460 into a functional system ha s required significant attention. In this paper, the integration issues and technical approaches of project "Rolling Thunder" are presented. Lessons o f the project are also discussed.