Comments on: Solar Energy In The Australian Outback – At 8c/kWh http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/21/solar-energy-in-the-australian-outback-at-8ckwh/ Clean Tech News & Views: Solar Energy News. Wind Energy News. EV News. & More. Mon, 29 Dec 2014 00:43:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=4.0.1 By: Ronald Brakels http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/21/solar-energy-in-the-australian-outback-at-8ckwh/#comment-159124 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:30:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=50923#comment-159124 It works. This is like ancient technology from 4 years ago. The Cloncurry project design had 8 hours storage but glare and low cost PV killed it. Here they seem to be ressurecting it as a hybrid solar/fossil fuel system that makes use of waste heat. This may work, or low cost PV/wind etc. might mean it would be more economical to skip the heliostats and just use electrical resistance heating thermal storage. It will be interesting to find out what works best.

]]> By: Bob_Wallace http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/21/solar-energy-in-the-australian-outback-at-8ckwh/#comment-159122 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 02:10:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=50923#comment-159122 If the block of graphite is large enough and well-enough insulated.

Someone worked up a thermal solar design a few years back in which the heliostats would be aimed at a concentrating mirror suspended above them. The light beam from that mirror would be aimed on a very large block of graphite stored underground in an insulated chamber. When the Sun dropped in the sky a set of insulated doors would seal off the graphite.

]]> By: Ronald Brakels http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/21/solar-energy-in-the-australian-outback-at-8ckwh/#comment-159121 Mon, 22 Apr 2013 01:41:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=50923#comment-159121 In this design sunlight is concentrated onto a big graphite block in the tower and that block stays hot for quite some time. Water takes heat from the graphite block, so storage is built in. This design was going to be built in the outback town of Cloncurry a few years back, but it ran into problems with glare and now Cloncurry now has a fair bit of PV instead.

]]> By: Ronald Brakels http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/21/solar-energy-in-the-australian-outback-at-8ckwh/#comment-159116 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:29:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=50923#comment-159116 But low cost PV could make this uneconomic. It would be possible to rely on PV during the day while one of these just heats graphite for use during the evening and night. Or surplus PV electricity could simply be used to heat a block of graphite or other thermal energy storage medium without heliostats. This wouldn’t be an efficient way to run things but still might be the cheapest way to store energy for an off grid mine.

]]> By: Bob_Wallace http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/21/solar-energy-in-the-australian-outback-at-8ckwh/#comment-159118 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:29:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=50923#comment-159118 If it has storage. I read the piece a couple of times and it wasn’t clear to me that it did. There’s ““in-built” storage option” but I didn’t see anything specific about storage actually included.

]]> By: Ronald Brakels http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/21/solar-energy-in-the-australian-outback-at-8ckwh/#comment-159114 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 23:14:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=50923#comment-159114 This comes with storage.

]]> By: Bob_Wallace http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/21/solar-energy-in-the-australian-outback-at-8ckwh/#comment-159102 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 21:06:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=50923#comment-159102 Eight cents is not low enough if the new PV farm in Spain really comes in at six cents.

]]> By: jburt56 http://cleantechnica.com/2013/04/21/solar-energy-in-the-australian-outback-at-8ckwh/#comment-159099 Sun, 21 Apr 2013 20:15:00 +0000 http://cleantechnica.com/?p=50923#comment-159099 Aye mate, that’s one sweet array you have there!!!

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