1 MW?!?! Hee hee hee! Good one! Funny!
A megawatt is equal to 1341 mechanical horsepower. Assume the generator is 95% efficient and that another 15% gets eaten up in loads like feed pump losses, fluid circulation, collector positioning and so on. That takes about 1,675 horsepower at the drive shaft.
This from a company that never managed to install their 100 HP engine in a land speed car (Mark 5) and cancelled the next bigger engine (Mark 6)... and even then the Mark 6 has never been shown even spinning an unattached shaft. Their latest focus has been on the Mk1 and Mk3, very tiny engines.
How many Mk3 engines are needed to produce 1,700 HP? :-\
Of course, thermal efficiency rises with temperature but you have to question just how hot they are going to get their water using solar collectors. Wouldn't one of the companies building ORC (Organic Rankine Cycle) generator systems be a closer fit ... especially since they specialize in solar power?
Actually, at 1 megawatt we can make a very persuasive argument for turbomachinery versus piston.
All of the above aside, though, one question springs to mind. If their resources are encumbered by creditors, where are they going to design, build and test an engine? Especially an engine at least 15 times larger than the highest output they've ever even claimed to have developed, let alone actually demonstrated.
