While electrification offers significant opportunities to reduce emissions in the energy market, many thermal processes and use cases, such as high temperature heating processes, are not suited to full electrification.
Insights extract
The Australian Solar Thermal Research Institute (ASTRI) recently published its annual report. ASTRI is a consortium of leading Australian research institutions collaborating primarily on ‘over the horizon’ concentrating solar thermal (CST) research projects.
The report provides an international perspective on solar thermal technologies, before detailing ASTRI’s technology development activities from 2021, including sodium receiver design and development, thermal energy storage integration and evaluation, and heliostats.
It states that “well over 80% of Australia’s current energy requirements use thermal energy processes” and notes that new thermal technologies can support electrification and play a key role in the transition to a 100% renewable energy system.
