Millions in Australian government funding for renewable methane, hydrogen, solar hydropower projects

May 17, 2020 |

The world’s first solar hydropower plant

Next, let’s talk about Australia’s vision to build a fully dispatchable renewable energy facility that will use RayGen’s concentrated solar PV technology known as PV Ultra combined with their Thermal Hydro technology to generate renewable energy and provide large scale energy storage – a world’s first.

ARENA recently poured in $3 million in funding for RayGen to conduct a technical and commercial feasibility study for the 4MW ‘solar hydro’ power plant to be built in north-western Victoria. The grid-scale power plant is proposed to be built in Carwarp near Mildura capable of providing 4MW of solar generation and 17 hours of storage.

The $6 million first phase will get the project to financial close and shovel ready for construction.

RayGen will be working with AGL and GHD on this initial phase which will include technical and commercial feasibility studies, commercial assessment, a connection agreement, offtake agreements, capital raising and a planning permit for a preferred site.

ARENA previously supported RayGen with a total of $8.67 million in funding to develop its PV Ultra technology and build the 1MW PV Ultra pilot project in Newbridge, Victoria. The pilot project has been operational for over two years powering a local mushroom farm.

RayGen is expected to reach financial close and commence construction on the plant this year, with the aim to have the facility commissioned in 2021.

Watch the project video here.

About the technology

PV Ultra is a tower-mounted, concentrated solar PV technology that combines low-cost solar collection heliostats and high-efficiency solar conversion via PV cells, creating the ability to co-generate electricity and heat. The heat by-product is captured and used to boost the efficiency of the thermal storage element.

The thermal storage technology stores energy as a temperature difference between two water reservoirs. The heat generated from the PV Ultra is used to charge the hot reservoir, whilst the cold reservoir is cooled using an electric chiller supplied with electricity from PV Ultra and the grid.

The stored temperature difference will power an Organic Rankine Cycle engine to generate electricity with a round trip efficiency of 70%.

The size of the storage reservoirs are readily scalable and the water will be recycled and reused.

Reactions from the stakeholders

ARENA CEO Darren Miller said, “With RayGen’s project we’re seeing homegrown innovation in solar PV now being used to find new solutions for dispatchable renewable energy. RayGen’s solution could complement other more traditional forms of storage such as grid-scale batteries and pumped hydro.”

“With ARENA’s funding, RayGen is aiming to progress this project to be shovel ready by the end of this year and to prove its novel technology can be cost-competitive with batteries and pumped hydro,” said Miller. “While this solar and thermal storage plant works similarly to a solar farm combined with a pumped hydro facility, the advantage of RayGen’s approach is that it can be deployed at a smaller scale and at a much lower absolute cost.”

RayGen CEO Richard Payne said, “Australia’s energy transition will require storage solutions that can store power cost-effectively for hours, days or weeks and be deployed at large scale around the world. RayGen has developed an innovative solar-plus-storage product that captures sunlight with mirrors and stores energy in water. Our technology provides firm renewable power at low cost, while conserving natural resources and our environment.”

RayGen’s flagship 4MW / 50MWh plant is expected to offer storage at a fraction of the cost of recent battery projects,” said Payne. “The project is in a renewable energy zone that has limited capacity to support pumped hydro. We will also be supplying synchronous power to the grid where it is critically needed in the West Murray region.

“AGL’s support for this project is consistent with our commitment to providing sustainable, secure and affordable energy for our customers and helping shape a sustainable energy future for Australia,” said AGL Interim Executive General Manager Wholesale Markets Dominique Van Den Berg.

Continue reading on the next page for the details on the last, but certainly not least, project – renewable hydrogen for export.

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