Central Receiver CPV Pilot Project Stage 3
- $2.92m Funded by ARENA
- $5.84m Total project cost
Summary
This project will develop designs to commercialise the world’s only ‘power tower’ system that uses solar photovoltaic (PV) receivers to generate renewable energy from concentrated sunlight.
An 8 MW production line will also be constructed and commissioned to manufacture the technology at a greater scale.
Learn more
Media Release: Australian Solar Pioneer Forges Ahead with Global Technology
A ground-breaking, Australian-grown technology able to produce low-cost renewable energy is set to continue its journey to commercialisation with new funding from ARENA.
Project: Central Receiver CPV Pilot Project Stage 2
This project demonstrated the world’s first pre-commercial pilot of a central receiver system that uses solar photovoltaic (PV) energy conversion.
Project innovation
Central receiver concentrator photovoltaic (CSPV) technology combines an ultra-efficient concentrated solar PV (CPV) receiver with an array of sun-tracking mirrors, otherwise known as heliostats. The heliostats concentrate sunlight onto photovoltaic cells in a central receiver located at the top of a mast.
By using large arrays of inexpensive mirrors, the CSPV technology can sidestep cost issues facing other solar technologies and therefore significantly reduce the cost of large scale solar energy.
The technical capabilities of RayGen’s CSPV technology was proved in the ARENA supported stage 2 pilot project. This third stage will develop designs for its advanced PV-Ultra technology to a commercial state. The existing pilot plant will be refitted with components using the updated commercial designs to test their performance.
An 8 MW dense array module production line will be installed and commissioned at Raygen’s head office in Blackburn, Victoria, to enable larger scale deployment of the PV-Ultra technology.
Benefit
This project is a key step towards RayGen’s ambition to commercialisation its PV-Ultra technology. It will be instrumental in reducing the cost of commercial concentrating solar power to the point where it can compete with other sources of energy generation without subsidies.
