In 2004, artist Dave Hartkop was looking for a way to move out of his parents’ house. Pairing his interest in alternative energy with his brother Mike’s passion for coffee, he decided to start an online coffee business, and designed a huge solar-powered roasting system to supply it. Now the brothers are on their fourth, and by far largest, version of the roaster. Dubbed Helios 4, it’s made up of more than 600 mirrors and has a 35-foot-by-35-foot footprint.
Hartkop chose solar power because it was the only renewable resource that could produce high-enough temperatures for roasting at a feasible cost. But he faced a major obstacle: Wind gusts in the Pueblo, Colorado, area where he lives regularly reach 90 mph. So he hired contractors to fabricate a truss from two I-beams to stabilize the solar array, bringing the structure’s weight to about 11,000 pounds.
Source: Popular Science
Hartkop chose solar power because it was the only renewable resource that could produce high-enough temperatures for roasting at a feasible cost. But he faced a major obstacle: Wind gusts in the Pueblo, Colorado, area where he lives regularly reach 90 mph. So he hired contractors to fabricate a truss from two I-beams to stabilize the solar array, bringing the structure’s weight to about 11,000 pounds.
Source: Popular Science
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