Enter the Solarbeam

Southern New England Solar has installed the first solar parabolic concentrator on a residence in the United States, here on Martha’s Vineyard. The system is currently providing all domestic hot water, space heating and pool heating for a large residence on the Island.

The company, recently formed by West Tisbury resident Paul D. Adler, with sales executive Gary Stuber of Chilmark, has an exclusive distributorship for Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, for a new solar product called the Solarbeam.

The Solarbeam is a 15-foot diameter collector that uses sophisticated GPS to track the sun’s location throughout the year. It can produce 13kW of thermal energy per hour in full sun conditions. Primarily aimed at commercial buildings that have a large hot water need, the Solarbeam also can be used in large residences.

By 2012, the Solarbeam’s photovoltaic technology will enable it to simultaneously produce both hot water (8kW per hour) and electricity (4.5kW), the only commercially available solar collector in the world with that capability.

For more, see online solarbeam.us.