Australia Finances Solar Power Research

The Australian Solar Institute granted a major funding to the University of New South Wales, ensuring its lead role in the development of new technologies that will make solar energy cheaper and much more efficient than it is today.

The School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering Associate Professor, Gary Rosengarten, is working on a roof-mounted, concentrated solar-thermal system for heating, cooling and power, along with the Australian National University, NEP Solar, the CSIRO and the US-based firm Chromasun.
 
“We will be looking at a new collector that splits the beam of the Sun,” Rosengarten said.

“It’s a spectral splitter concept which allows you to decouple the photovoltaic and thermal functions, alleviating the problem of heat in the solar cell.”

The federal government’s ASI announced its inaugural round of scholarships and fellowships, and it includes three recipients from UNSW: Jonathon Dore, from SPREE (the School of Photovoltaic and Renewable Energy Engineering) and Nicholas Boerema, from Mechanical Engineering – who were awarded ASI PhD Scholarships, as well as Dr Xiaojing Hao, also of SPREE – who won a Research Fellowship.

Dr Richard Corkish, Head of SPREE, said that these scholarships are a very important gain for the research capacity of the University and for the country.

“To capture these great brains and keep our graduates here at UNSW is wonderful,” he added.

For its second round of grants, the ASI has funded five projects in which the University of New South Wales is lead partner, and this includes a $1.4 million project led by SPREE's Associate Professor Gavin Conibeer, for the development of tandem quantum dot solar cells employing nanotechnology to boost efficiency.

Other projects funded by the ASI include a research for a high-efficiency, solar-concentrator 'power tower', the development of new techniques for the low-cost production of solar silicon, advanced methodologies for solar forecasting and grid integration of solar power and a research in the development of third-generation 'hot carrier' solar cell technology.

The University of New South Wales is also a partner in other five of the 14 projects funded in this round.