Open Source is everywhere. When fossils fuels are depleting fast and humanity is worrying about how to supply power to the next generations, Zenman Energy is building a solar steam engine that will be affordable to the masses and also cost fraction of current photovoltaic solutions. On the top of it, it will be open-source.

This means you are free to copy, modify and distribute the designs. As noted on their website:

This may sound strange, but we WANT you to copy our designs. First, we need help to improve the implementations but more importantly we need YOU or your business to make money from solar power production. Zenman Energy can't create enough power plants to make a dent in how the world creates energy, it will take lots of people to make this happen.

This picture denotes how the solar steam engine may look like:

Our first major project is to produce an affordable solar steam engine. On paper (well... on computer screen) our first design is a fraction of the cost of current photovoltaic solutions. It may even compete with the cost of coal power. When the prototype is complete, we will release detailed construction plans for free.

The firm is plainning to roll out prototypes soon. The first prototype will be enough to generate 7.3 kilowatts of energy. The second will turn a 100 horsepower motor and roughly 73 kilowatts of energy, while the third will be a solar power plant with 1 megawatts of energy producation.

Zenman energy needs your help. If you are an engineer, you can contact them here. You can also donate to cover up their costs.