Coming Clean: Energising Solar For the Good of Mankind

Perhaps in spite of, and not because of, the current Government’s mixed feelings on anything that looks like clean energy to upset the “fossil-fuel-eyed” status quo, Australia’s inventiveness and entrepreneurial spirit reigns supreme as we see with the Pollinate Energy artistic approach to energising solar for the good of mankind to RayGen Resources winning a big China contract for its solar technology. Thanks Australia CleanTech’s John O’Brien for alerting us to these and other advances down under. Read More

By Sophie Vorrath in Reneweconomy  on 1 May 2014

Pollinate Energy is all about shining a light. The Australian founded not-for-profit clean energy company last year won an award from the UN’s Momentum for Change program for helping slum-dwellers in India replace expensive and highly polluting kerosene lamps with cheaper solar energy.

The company focuses on training members of the local community to distribute and install solar lighting systems as micro-entrepreneurs, or “Pollinators.” So far, it has provided solar systems to 10,000 housholds in 250 of Bangalore’s slum communities, in turn saving 40,000 litres of kerosene and 100,000 kilograms of carbon emissions.

But Pollinate’s latest solar lighting project has a less functional purpose… It also has a name: Ray. Ray, as the company notes on its website, “is a light sculpture powered by the sun, hanging out at Sydney Harbour” as part of the four-week Vivid Light 2014 event.

Created by Pollinate in conjunction with Southern Cross University, the seven metre tall installation is made up of strips of multi-coloured light connecting to a base. The idea is that passers-by can pull on Ray’s vines (located in charging pods), resulting in coloured light shooting towards the top of the sculpture. This action will gradually fully charge Ray, at which point he will “overflow in a surge of sound, light and colour.”

For Pollinate, this project embodies the company’s vision of positive change through sustainable and renewable energy.

“He was born out of our willingness to showcase our progress so far, and a metaphorical touch to the impact one light can have on an entire family living in energy poverty,” it says.

For the team at Southern Cross University, led by Barry Hill, creator of SCU’s Sunflower solar generator, it is a chance to test the technology – which is still in development, but has been used successfully to power stages at music festivals such as Bluesfest and Womex Brisbane, and at the Byron Bay Writers Festival – in a new and very different way.

“Ray has meant that we can showcase how we are making the Sunflower generator highly interactive,” said Dr Hill on the Pollinate website.

 “It is a project that has allowed us to test a new data communication system that we have designed to allow solar generator data to be used in the creation of audio visual works. In a sense we are making the Sunflower generator into a musical instrument by using the data gathered from the power generation and discharge cycle to send data to the Hi Ray website and control aspects of the graphic design and audio soundscape.”

Most importantly, he added, “the Ray project is one that shows that renewable energy is a great solution for marginalised communities all over the world that have no access to any safe power source and this impacts on their ability to live, communicate and survive in the 21st Century.”

Source: www.reneweconomy.com.au

11 April 2014

AUSTRALIAN SOLAR TECHNOLOGY LEADER WINS LUCRATIVE CHINA CONTRACT

New CSPV technology to forge billion‐dollar global market

Australian technology company, RayGen Resources, has signed a $A60 million investment and distribution deal to supply its leading‐edge solar power generation technology into China, with a target to secure global exports beyond $1 billion by 2020.

The deal signing with ZhuoZhou Intense Solar Ltd (Intense Solar) was witnessed today by Andrew Robb, MP Minister for Trade and Investment, in Shanghai as part of the Australia Week in China trade mission. Mr Robb described the agreement as a “tremendous example of Australian innovation finding a market in China which results in jobs, investment and trade for Australia.”

In addition to a $2 million equity investment in RayGen, the deal will see Intense Solar buying RayGen’s Australian‐manufactured advanced semiconductor and computerised control components for further assembly in China with locally made parts. In turn, Intense Solar will sell the complete product within China on an exclusive basis. RayGen will sell the high tech components in increasing scale over the next few years, with minimum total sales of $58 million.

At the heart of the distribution deal is RayGen’s revolutionary Concentrated Solar Photovoltaic (CSPV) technology. CSPV is a major advancement on conventional solar technologies because it delivers lower cost and higher efficiency. It uses computer‐controlled mirrors to direct a concentrated beam of sunlight onto ultra‐efficient solar semiconductor devices originally designed to power spacecraft. Twice as efficient as traditional solar panels, RayGen’s technology enables industrial‐capacity solar energy delivered off the grid at on‐the‐grid prices.

RayGen’s solution will produce clean power more cheaply than fossil fuel generation especially in remote, sunny areas.

RayGen CEO, Bob Cart, said the company’s world‐leading technology solution made it a compelling proposition for rapidly developing markets like China with burgeoning demand for low‐cost clean energy options needed to address acute air quality problems.

“Intense Solar saw our solution last year as result of a trade mission hosted by AusTrade. They decided that we offered the best, most innovative solution to meet China’s ever‐increasing demand for power generation”, said Mr Cart.

“We’re delighted they’ve chosen to partner with us and we’re excited by what we see as a huge opportunity to marry Australian innovation and know‐how with Intense Solar’s market access and manufacturing capabilities in China.”

“The deal wouldn’t have happened without the support of AusTrade, along with the Chinese government which also provided its approval and support”, he said. Mr Cart said he hoped the RayGen deal would pave the way for other Australian technology companies to commercialise their ideas by value‐adding to the mass‐production capabilities of economic powers like China and other offshore markets. “Our partnership with Intense Solar shows there’s a significant export market to be gained from this approach and, based on the current trajectory, we believe sales of CSPV products will pass the billion‐dollar mark by the end of the decade”, said Mr Cart.

RayGen was a finalist in the 2013 Australian Technologies Competition supported by the Department of Industry. This led to an invitation by AusTrade for RayGen to join the trade mission to China. RayGen has received $2.75million in Federal and State Government grants since its inception in 2010.

Mr Cart said his company’s agreement with Intense Solar showed that technology innovation was capable of producing returns on taxpayer funding for the benefit of the broader Australian economy.

About RayGen

Established in Melbourne, Australia in 2010, RayGen has developed technology that aims to deliver the world’s lowest‐cost energy generation technology solution. It is revolutionising remote energy production for various applications such as mining. The company was a finalist in the 2013 Australian Technologies Competition and has been awarded Victorian and Commonwealth government grants to help fund the development of its innovative technology solutions for both domestic and offshore markets.

Source: www.raygen.com/live/company.html