Solar Thermal Facilities

The ANU Solar Thermal Group operates facilities at the southern end of the ANU campus that include:

• The “SG3” 400m2 Big Dish prototype, with its associated steam system components, demonstration engine systems and data acquisition systems housed within a secure fenced compound;
• The prototype Ammonia thermochemical energy storage system;
• The 20m2 small dish experimental unit, that is currently the work-horse for the existing ammonia thermochemical energy storage system;
• A test array of Solar Air heaters with attached phase change energy storage bank;
• A parabolic trough thermal concentrator test bed;
• An 80m2 floor area design office that incorporates, computer workstations with CAD systems, access to plotters, a library of technical reports and working drawings and meeting areas;
• A 200m2 workshop area, with lathes, milling machine, welding equipment, general workshop facilities and overhead crane and forklift access and prototype mirror production equipment.

Location

400-m2 “Big-Dish”    Click here for a library of dish images

ANU's 400 m2 “SG3” paraboloidal dish solar concentrator, is the largest of its kind in the world.

Construction is based on a space-frame design with a network of tubular steel members joined to spherical nodes. The dish rotates on a reinforced concrete track. Fifty-four triangular mirror elements are attached to the dish-frame. Elevation-azimuth tracking of the dish is accomplished using hydraulic rams. The mirrors used on the ANU prototype, deliver a peak concentration ratio of 1500.

A monotube boiler housed in a “top-hat” cavity produces up to 100 g/s of steam that is superheated to typically 500°C and 4.5 MPa. This steam is passed to the ground via steamline and rotary joints for expansion in a grid-connected steam engine / generator unit. Table 1 provides some basic design information about the system. ANUTECH Pty Ltd has supplied a similar 400 m2 “Big-Dish” unit to the Sede Boqer campus of the Ben Gurion University in Israel.

Table 1: Design details of ANU’s 400 m2 dish / 50 kWe steam engine system.

The ANU Big Dish Technology is exclusively licenced to Wizard Power Pty Ltd www.wizardpower.com.au

Solar Air Heater Array

A major focus of current Low Temperature Solar Thermal R&D is the new Solar Air Heater Array

The 20m2 Dish

The 20m2 dish system shown above is currently used in thermochemical energy storage experiments (see menu link). A view of the associated laboratory housing components of the closed loop energy storage system is shown below. The dish is one of the dishes from the original production run for the 14 dish Whitecliffs power station in North West NSW.

The Thermochemical Energy Storage Laboratory

All equipment is built to withstand pressures up to 30MPa (300bar).Parabolic trough thermal concentrator test bed

Parabolic trough thermal concentrator test bed