Solar PV Research Guidelines. ARENA is currently calling for applications for its
Application Outcome October 2017 Successful applicants will be notified by in late-October 2017.
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We are leading the way in concentrated solar thermal research, specialising in high-temperature central receiver systems.
Our Energy Centre in Newcastle contains the only high-temperature solar thermal research facility of its type in Australia, home to the largest high-concentration solar array in the Southern Hemisphere.
Our challenge is how to make this solar a reliable, stable part of Australia''s energy future.
[Music plays and text appears: Supercritical solar steam: the new frontier for power generation]
[Image changes to show an array of mirrors reflecting sunlight onto a solar tower and then moves to show moving solar panels]
[Image changes to show Mike Collins, Research Projects Officer, CSIRO Energy Technology]
Mike Collins: Solar thermal energy works by concentrating sunlight using mirrors. The light is then shone up on top of the tower where there’s a solar receiver and in that receiver there’s a panel of tubes which steam is flowing inside. That steam is heated to high temperatures and then it flows back down the tower to a turbine at the bottom of the tower, a steam turbine. The steam flowing through that turbine spins the generator to generate electricity.
[Image changes to show Robbie McNaughton, Research Projects Officer, CSIRO Energy Technology]
Robbie McNaughton: The temperatures that we’ve obtained are over 550 degrees and at pressures above 24 mega Pascals. This is called supercritical steam generation and it’s a state where steam actually transforms without boiling.
[Camera moves back to the solar panels and solar boiler]
The steam conditions that we’ve achieved are comparable to what is running at the moment in fossil fuel power stations. So we’re able to actually either displace the steam that goes into these, reducing the fossil fuel reliance, or in some cases maybe even replace fossil fuel completely.
[Image has changed back to Robbie]
It’s really exciting to work on these types of projects. Doing a world first is always exciting but in this case what we’ve actually been able to do is potentially make a step change in the way solar thermal power is generated.
We are committed to child safety and to the implementation of Child Safe principles and procedures.
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Solar power is generated when energy from the sun (sunlight) is converted into electricity or used to heat air, water, or other fluids. There are two main types of solar energy technologies:
Solar thermal and PV technology can also be combined into a single system that generates both heat and electricity.
The Australian continent has the highest solar radiation per square metre of any continent and consequently some of the best solar energy resource in the world. The regions with the highest solar radiation are the desert regions in the northwest and centre of the continent.
Australia''s energy resources, including solar energy resources, and the factors impacting on the development and adoption of the various energy resources to 2030 are outlined in the Australian Energy Resource Assessment.
Australia receives an average of 58 million PJ of solar radiation per year, approximately 10 000 times larger than its total energy consumption. However, Australia''s current use of solar energy is low with solar energy accounting for only about 0.1 per cent of Australia''s total primary energy consumption. The most common use of solar energy is solar thermal water heating. Solar PV systems play an important role in off-grid electricity generation in remote areas.
Electricity generation is increasing in response to government policies, notably the Renewable Energy Target, and as a consequence of the development of photovoltaic and concentrating solar thermal technologies through substantial research and development programs. These include the government''s Clean Energy Initiative Solar Flagships Program managed by the Department of Resources Energy and Tourism which has committed $1.5 billion to support the construction and demonstration of up to four large-scale solar power plants in Australia, using solar thermal and PV technologies. The Government''s aim is to establish up to 1000 megawatts (MW) of solar power generation capacity.
Geoscience Australia is contributing to this program by providing pre-competitive solar resource prospectivity data and analysis to assist the solar industry and research community. The first steps in this project were to improve the collection of solar insolation data through a collaboration project with the Bureau of Meteorology, to increase their solar monitoring ground station network, and to improve the satellite models base used in collaboration with those ground stations.
For people interested in solar ground station sites across Australia, you can view a map and information on some of the active solar ground stations currently collecting insolation data across Australia.
AREMI is a website for map-based access to Australian spatial data relevant to the Renewable Energy industry - with a focus on Developers, Financiers, and Policy Makers. This project has hosting provided by Geoscience Australia, funding by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, developed by NICTA in partnership with the Clean Energy Council. The site is an extension of the Australian Government''s National Map initiative.
AREMI is an open architecture system. When you access data through it, you are typically accessing the data directly from the government department or agency which is the custodian of that data.
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