Concentrating Solar Power

Star Catcher Industries has secured US$12.25 million in seed funding for its ambitious plan to build the first “space-based energy grid.” A network of satellites would gather and concentrate solar energy and beam it to other satellites in orbit.

It's rarely great news when an area gets blanketed in volcanic ash – but University of Barcelona researchers have discovered it has a rare combination of useful properties, which make it remarkably useful as an energy storage medium.

In many ways, space is the perfect place for a solar energy array. In other ways, it poses massive technical challenges. China's Xidian University has begun testing the full range of space solar functions with a purpose-built 75-meter tower facility.

Mining giant Rio Tinto has announced plans to install a pilot version of Heliogen's high-temperature "solar refinery" at a Californian boron mine, supplying clean energy as well as heat for industrial processes, with operations set to start in 2022.

A new project in the Australian Outback will trial an innovative technique for converting solar energy into hydrogen by capturing moisture from the air and splitting it via hydrolysis, making it possible for hot, arid areas to become energy exporters.

Concentrating solar power (CSP) plants can be a key part of a renewable energy strategy, but progress is often focused on larger facilities. Now, engineers from Sandia National Laboratories are improving the efficiency of smaller plants, designing a new receiver that can absorb much more sunlight.

​Australian scientists are no strangers to world records for solar power: in 2014, the CSIRO superheated steam, and in May, UNSW achieved 34.5 percent efficiency in directly converting sunlight to electricity. Now, ANU hit a new record of 97 percent efficiency in converting sunlight into steam.