Thread: has Australia dropped the ball on solar?

He's working on his sun tan ??

Matt

a few years ago now, Australia was leading solar pannel and solar technology. Funding was tough for the CSIRO based scientists and private companies doing the R&D.

Big Arnie of California help poach them and LA started leading shortly after.

Australia is stuck on repeat with things like this, its almost become bragging rights

Australia and Tasmania, World leaders in Renewable Energy.

Well known is the State of Tasmania's, Hydro Electric power generation and the Wind Generator farms.



The state has also been a part of the scheme where Home Owners have been encouraged to fit Solar Power Panels.



Ref; Solar Power - Hobart, Launceston and Tasmania - Energy Matters Australia

Through the Renewable Energy Target scheme (RET), the Federal Government subsidises the cost of Solar Power Systems according to the energy generated.

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Ref; King Island Renewable Energy Expansion (KIREX) | King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project

A World leading in technology not well known in the community, it is a storage medium for electricity, installed by Hydro Tasmania.
The Vanadium Redox Battery ( VRB ) was installed in 2003 as part of KIREX, as the name suggests it is a large scale battery and has been in use on King Island since installation in conjunction with a Wind Farm.




Ref; ceic.unsw.edu.au/centers/vrb .

The University of New South Wales in Sydney Australia has been at the forefront of vanadium redox flow battery technology since the invention of the first all-vanadium redox flow cell by Prof Skyllas-Kazacos and co-workers back in 1985. As the adoption of cyclic renewable energy generation sources such as wind and solar continues to increase, the demand for large scale energy storage technologies is rising. The UNSW Vanadium Redox Flow Battery technology is a proven, economically attractive and low-maintenance solution, with significant benefits over the obsolete lead-acid battery technology.

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Yep, from leading the world, to it's all to hard, lets mine more coal it's cheaper short term.

Always for now and never for the future, Australias motto for everything.

The Government(all sides) needs to pull their heads out of their arses

Baz.

Australia's problem is that it's Politicians follow the noise and then ill conceived promises then flush forward in line with the weight of the uninformed nonsense.

Technology for Environmentally friendly Power Generation, isn't thought much about by the Obese, Holden / Ford loving, Pie eating, Football / Cricket watchers who make their demands for bigger and better Sports Stadiums.

The other side of the coin is that the Companies that are at the forefront of Technology here in Australia, are woefully quiet about their achievements and are easily swayed away from our shores by the offers of more money, going to Countries that have many times the populations that Australia has, to draw investment money from.
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Originally Posted by wrinklearthur

Australia and Tasmania, World leaders in Renewable Energy.



Ref; King Island Renewable Energy Expansion (KIREX) | King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project

A World leading in technology not well known in the community, it is a storage medium for electricity, installed by Hydro Tasmania.
The Vanadium Redox Battery ( VRB ) was installed in 2003 as part of KIREX, as the name suggests it is a large scale battery and has been in use on King Island since installation in conjunction with a Wind Farm.




Ref; ceic.unsw.edu.au/centers/vrb .


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Yes , it appears that Tas. was a World leader in the vanadium battery, but what happened? Canada has a company, supplying vanadium batteries to New York. [ see seperate thread] Next question, does Australia have a home grown source of vanadium? Bob





Vanadium Batteries

The batteries are capable of storing 130 kilowatt-hours each. They are produced by DMG Mori Seiki AG (GIL)’s Gildemeister unit, which has installed 50 of the systems under the brand name CellCube, Radvak said.
The CellCube batteries use vanadium dissolved in sulfuric acid. Unlike standard lead-acid batteries or the lithium-ion units used by Tesla, they can be recharged and discharged indefinitely and may last as long as 20 years, Radvak said.

“The system excels at multiple hours of energy for long-duration requirements,” he said. “It’s also very safe. It can’t light on fire. The difficulty has been commercializing it.”
American Vanadium intends to mine ore in Nevada and expects to receive an environmental permit from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management this year, Radvak said. It has a supply deal with Gildemeister and an agreement to market the batteries in North America.

Ivanpah in the mojave desert is now operating. We could have lots of this type of thing if we had some forward thinking.
Take the tour
BrightSource Ivanpah | Proven Leadership in Solar Energy
Don.

Originally Posted by wrinklearthur

Australia and Tasmania, World leaders in Renewable Energy.

Well known is the State of Tasmania's, Hydro Electric power generation and the Wind Generator farms.



The state has also been a part of the scheme where Home Owners have been encouraged to fit Solar Power Panels.



Ref; Solar Power - Hobart, Launceston and Tasmania - Energy Matters Australia

.

Ref; King Island Renewable Energy Expansion (KIREX) | King Island Renewable Energy Integration Project

A World leading in technology not well known in the community, it is a storage medium for electricity, installed by Hydro Tasmania.
The Vanadium Redox Battery ( VRB ) was installed in 2003 as part of KIREX, as the name suggests it is a large scale battery and has been in use on King Island since installation in conjunction with a Wind Farm.




Ref; ceic.unsw.edu.au/centers/vrb .


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Except in reality, where I was speaking to some operators at the plant on King island, when I was there, they said the trackers for the panels are constantly failing and the winds from the roaring 40's are not consitant enough for good production from the wind turbines

They did day however thos CAT gensets are ever reliable