This project was a partnership between the Australian national University, the University of New South Wales, RMIT University, CSIRO, NEP Solar and Chromasun.
Report extract
The aim of the project is to develop an improved roof-mounted hybrid solar concentrator for the cost-effective delivery of heating, cooling and electricity that is suitable for installation on buildings.
The key innovation of the project is the use of spectral splitting of sunlight to improve the overall efficiency. Only the part of the solar spectrum most suitable for photovoltaic (PV) conversion by the solar cells is directed to silicon solar cells. The balance is directed to a thermal absorber to heat a circulating thermal fluid to 120-150ºC. In addition, novel cooling technology that takes advantage of the 120-150ºC thermal output of the system was developed by CSIRO.
