Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems to deploy CSIRO’s solar thermal technology

CSIRO’s solar thermal heliostats will be deployed for Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems (MHPS) to conduct research into technologies that reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

MHPS received funding from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment to deploy the technology for its research.

Heliostats are an array of flat mirrors that direct sun rays onto a receiver on top of a tower. The angle of the mirrors are moved or rotated in accordance with how the sun’s rays should be directed to where they need to go via computer control.

The technology was developed in a collaboration between Heliostat SA and CSIRO, with a field of 150 heliostats to be deployed in Yokohama, Japan.

CSIRO’s Energy and Resources executive director, Dr Alex Wonhas, said having a “global leader in energy” deploy its technology shows there is strong interest in the international market for Australia to continue to develop and trade on solar technology.

“These projects are the fruits of more than a decade of solar thermal research emanating from our energy centre in Newcastle and demonstrate the growing worldwide appetite for concentrated solar power,” he said.

The heliostats are designed to be smaller than conventional ones, with an advanced control system that gets optimal performance when harnessing the sun, according to CSIRO.

The technology has potential to provide for medium to large scale amounts of power and the energy can be stored as heat in solar thermal systems, CSIRO said.

This will be the second time CSIRO deploys its solar thermal technology internationally, the first being earlier in the year in Pentakomo, Cyprus for the Cyprus Institute for solar research.