A new tower concentrating solar research, development and commercialisation facility is nearing completion in a northern industrial suburb of Adelaide. It has been fully designed and delivered by Heliostat SA, in collaboration with UniSA and the automotive sector. The heliostat field consists of 25 single facet focused heliostats, each [...]
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has launched a request for information on all types of CSP technologies in order to define the scope and focus of government assistance for solar thermal deployment. Government-owned ARENA has invited CSP industry participants such as developers, investors, original equipment manufacturers and offtakers, [...]
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has set out its plans for seeking industry information as the first step in exploring how concentrated sunlight could generate reliable, affordable renewable energy with built-in storage for our national grids. The new call aligns with the federal government’s offer to make up to $110 [...]
SolarReserve is considering developing four to six CSP plants, each of capacity 100 to 150 MW, in the Australian state of Queensland, Daniel Thompson, SolarReserve's Australia director, told the Courier Mail newspaper May 6. The U.S.-based developer is currently scouting for sites in Queensland, particularly in the north and [...]
A COMPANY which helps keep the neon burning bright in the casino capital Las Vegas is planning a series of solar power plants across Queensland, creating more than 20,000 construction jobs. SolarReserve is scouting sites for up to half a dozen solar thermal stations, each of which generate enough [...]
More than 200 people turned out on the steps of Parliament House on Sunday, with their own makeshift solar panels, urging the State Government to back a solar thermal power plant at Port Augusta. Decked with mirror panels to mimic solar panels, the demonstrators were led by Port Augusta [...]
Part greenhouse, part solar plant, this farm is harvesting food from the Australian desert. Officially launched in October 2016 at Port Augusta in South Australia after a six-year pilot, it's the first outpost of Sundrop Farms. The company wants to make farming more resilient to climate change by using [...]
Australian renewable energy firm Solastor want to create a $700 million solar-thermal power plant in Port Augusta in the near future, and they can do so without government funding. The first-stage 100 Megawatt facility would create 500 jobs during construction, including 250 on site and 30 ongoing jobs. That [...]
Senator Nick Xenophon expects the deal he struck to pass the federal Coalition’s tax cuts on Friday should guarantee that Australia’s first large-scale solar thermal plant begins construction before the next election. Xenophon got the Coalition government to deliver on its pre-election promise of facilitating solar thermal by agreeing [...]
The federal Coalition government has announced that it will provide $110 million in concessional loans to a solar tower and molten salt storage project in Port Augusta, as part of last minute negotiations with the Nick Xenophon Party to pass major tax cuts. The commitment was announced by finance minister [...]
US solar company SolarReserve is showing signs of cracking the Australian solar market – but not (yet) with its preferred technology of concentrating solar and storage. Rather, the company has entered into a partnership with local engineering firm Decmil Group to build a 70MW PV plant in New South [...]
A remote West Australian potash miner has set itself an ambitious target to use concentrated solar thermal energy to power 70 per cent of its operation. The Perth-based company, Agrimin Limited, owns a sulphate of potash project on the WA-Northern Territory border at Lake Mackay, approximately 540 kilometres west [...]
Despite the criticism levelled at South Australia over its renewable energy ambitions, the state is nevertheless aiming to be carbon neutral by mid-century), which will mean moving to 100% renewable electricity over the next 15-20 years. The biggest challenge will be meeting the 2-3 hours of peak demand during the [...]
