Mirrors move for new solar
RayGen has officially opened its $27 million solar and thermal power plant project in Carwarp, north-west Victoria.
RayGen's state-of-the-art facility, backed by $10 million in funding from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), harnesses concentrated solar energy via more than 1,000 rotating mirrors.
This concentrated solar energy is employed to generate electricity while simultaneously capturing excess heat, converting it into hot water to power generators and provide a stable supply of electricity to the grid.
Richard Payne, CEO of RayGen, has declared that the plant is already exporting power to the grid.
“It [the solar module] has a very small footprint and it's very capital-light,” Payne said.
“We are looking, together with our strategic investors, the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), to [see] how we can further scale that module manufacturing and deploy it to a growing pipeline, not only in Australia but also in international opportunities.”
The Carwarp plant's infrastructure comprises 441 modules perched atop towering structures, with each tower capable of producing one megawatt of electricity and two megawatts of heat.
Sunlight is concentrated at the tower's apex, heating solar modules that convert approximately one-third of the captured sunlight into electricity.
This extreme concentration, reportedly around 1,000 times that of regular sunlight, poses a unique challenge in terms of heat management.
To mitigate this, RayGen employs a continuous water cooling system for the modules, enabling the conversion of the remaining sunlight into heat.
During the cooling process, the water can reach temperatures of approximately 95 degrees Celsius, subsequently stored in a hot water pit for future use. Another pit holds cool water, and the temperature differential between these two reservoirs facilitates electricity generation via a Rankine cycle turbine.
The facility is expected to generate sufficient renewable electricity to power approximately 1,700 average Victorian homes.
The Carwarp plant is strategically positioned to address stability issues arising from the region's heavy investment in renewables.