This is more legit to me than just the sun warming up and steaming some food in a container like you typically see with solar cookers. This was real cooking at those high temps!
Interesting. I liked how he briefly shows the mirror alignment procedure; still it must take a bit to get them all aligned. I wonder if they are all optically flat? (Probably not.)
While we don't get to see the final product, if we take at face value that he cooked the steak in sixteen minutes, he probably didn't have to rotate the array as the sun would have only traveled about 4 degrees across the sky.
Also noted -- so apparently there is a use for a rotisserie with a steak.
You could probably track the optimal alignment over a long cook using a photodetector and an arduino or raspberry pi and some servos.
Edit: Or temperature control via DLP
Judging from glimpses of reflections in the video, the individual mirrors appear to have little or no curvature. The array, however, is obviously focused.
It's also of note that he did it up in the mountains, where the UV would be more intense than at lower elevations.
With less mirrors, and a basic tracking motor you could probably cook low and as long as there is sunlight theoretically. It seemed like wood chips would combust at those temps so you could maybe even get some smoke on it. ☀ï¸â˜€ï¸â˜€ï¸🔥🔥🔥â¤ï¸ðŸ¿
This seems perfectly legit to me. Those mirrors don't have to be optically flat to still concentrate plenty of solar energy in a small area. If you work out how to line them up, it'll work. But DAMN that is a lot of effort to go to!!!
Large Big Green Egg, Weber Performer Deluxe, Weber Smokey Joe Silver, Fireboard Drive, 3 DigiQs, lots of Thermapens, and too much other stuff to mention.
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