Sunshine is NOW Deployable

"Now is the Time for Deployment of Emission Free Dispatchable Power"

This week I will be presenting a Global snapshot of Large Scale Solar Power Generation -looking at the larger systems operating in both PV (photovoltaic) and Solar Thermal and also taking a peek at what's on the drawing board around the world.

When I first began preparing this talk for the Sydney Group of ANZSES, there was very little to say about Australia. Other than one system under development in Victoria, we do not come close to having any operational system that could be deemed commercial. Fortunately, the recent budget proposals make Australia's utility level solar power scene much more interesting. It's not a technical discussion - this talk is about deployment, what's happening and what's planned. If you are interested to attend the session at 6pm Tuesday May 26th at UTS in Sydney, then see details here.

pic by Sun ex Flickr by onlinewoman

Solar Energy Cheaper than Coal Fired Power

While the Government in Australia is focusing on so called "clean coal", yet another company in the USA is focusing the sun to generate power at much less cost than coal. Check out this link to a short video here.

The clever country chooses coal

Last week I did a talk at Sydney University for some students during their Environment week. The topic was Future Energy Options and Opportunities, and it was about Australia, what we have done to date in changing to a future of renewable and clean energy, and what we can do in the future. And I must say, that in terms of innovation, we are among the global leaders in areas such as Solar PV and Solar Concentrating Thermal, Wave power and Geothermal. But despite our wealth as a nation, we do not support this innovation and choose to spend more on assuring our global place as a sporting nation.

Projects such as the Solar Concentrating Thermal system now being made commercial in California by Ausra, were developed in Australia - this one was, and still is the passion of Dr David Mills, originally from Sydney University. Other major solar innovation in PV has also gone overseas. In wave power, it happens again. Oceanlinx, previously called Energetech Australia P/L, developed and tested their wave power system in Australia, but now are focusing on building a Wave Hub at Cornwall, UK.

Despite being endowed with a full deck of renewable energy options, we as a nation have chosen to follow the path of coal. We are the world's largest coal exporter and this means dollars for us. But I ask this question - who will buy our coal once the world has changed away from coal to renewable energy using the very considerable Aussie ingenuity?

Pic ex Wikipedia (Ausra media department, with GFDL license) shows Ausra Fresnel reflectors