SOLAR SPHERE

Every year Thailand experiences widespread flooding especially in the central region where the flooding is the most prolonged due to the area being a floodplain. In 2011, Thailand faced the most severe flooding in the country’s history. The flooding lasted for almost 5 months, caused up to 657 casualties and around 4 million households have been affected by this cruel natural disaster. This flooding problem has affected so many Thai people’s life in every year and none government seems to have come up with a permanent solution to fix it. Some of the people living in these repeatedly flooded area has to adjust their own way of living to deal with this problem. Some of the things that they do are moving their stuffs into the upper floor of the house, having their own boat or even building a raft to use for transportation. But the problem that comes with the flooding that these people can not fix on their own is the lack of electricity, light and clean water.We set a goal to design a device that utilizes natural light to generate electricity and produce clean water for the people in the flooded area to use. This device must also be easy to use, to assemble, to install and the reparation can be done by the local people using materials commonly found in their area.

The final design consists of 2 parts. The first part contains a clear balloon-shaped dome, solar concentrator, steam generator, and a screwpump . This part is foldable and can be easily assembled by the local. Whereas the second part, the local people can design and build on their own. This second part is basically a floating raft that is commonly made.

To assemble the two parts together, these two parts must be interlocked. First of all, the rafts must be built to the size requirements and prepare a space that use to gather clean water. Open the solar concentrator, put the steam generator in the middle and connect the steam generator with the screwpump and the generator. After that, put the pieces together with the raft and cover them with the clear dome.This device works when the natural light reaches the solar concentrator, then the light is being concentrated into steam generator. When the water in the steam generator heats up and evaporates, the steam will cause the motor to run and turn unclean water up to store in the gallon. When in need of clean water, the unclean water can be released into the filtration system turning them into clean water ready to consume and use. This release of unclean water into the filtration system will also generate electricity that can be stored and use when needed.