CSIRO installs solar thermal power station in Cyprus

csiro cyprus

CSIRO scientists have installed a small solar thermal power station with storage in Cyprus, an island nation that is mostly reliant on oil to generate electricity.

The 150kW facility is being used to drive a desalination plant, but it is principally a beach-head for the CSIRO to test its technology, and explore further international opportunities.

The project is being done as a joint venture with the Cyprus Institute, which is looking to deploy solar in the Middle East and Mediterranean islands to take advangage of their excellent sola resource.

“This project was a big step for CSIRO as it’s the first time we’ve deployed this cutting edge technology outside of our own backyard,” CSIRO solar research leader Wes Stein said.

The plant design is similar to a pilot facility in Newcastle, but includes smaller heliostats (mirrors) more suitable to the terrain in Cyprus. It comprises 50 heliostats and also includes molten salt storage.

Professor Costas Papanicolas, President of the Cyprus Institute said solar thermal technology had enormous potential for sun-rich countries such as Cyprus.

“Like Australia, Cyprus is blessed with an abundance of sunshine, so increasing the penetration of solar energy is an attractive option both in terms of energy affordability and lowering greenhouse gas emissions,” Professor Papanicolas said. To satisfy European legislation, 13 per cent of Cyprus’ total energy consumption must be derived from renewable sources by 2020.

CSIRO said its solar thermal team at its energy centre in Newcastle have set a number of records in the past 12 months, generating pressurised air at 880°C and supercritical steam in research projects.

Thermal energy can also be stored relatively cheaply compared to other technologies, improving potential for large scale power generation regardless of when the sun is shining.

Comments

3 responses to “CSIRO installs solar thermal power station in Cyprus”

  1. Ken Dyer Avatar
    Ken Dyer

    Three cheers for the CSIRO! You cannot keep them down. Not even Abbott’s $110 million razor cuts can stop them. The sad thing is that some of our best and brightest scientists are hobbled by this useless Abbott Government. and all Australians suffer.

  2. john Avatar
    john

    I seem to get mixed messages from this post it has mention of “generating pressurised air at 880°C and supercritical steam”
    Earlier in the post it mentioned a 150KW facility.
    Perhaps it actually is a 150kw electricity producer and stores the excess energy using molten salt, as a by-product of the system it desalinates water.

    1. JonathanMaddox Avatar
      JonathanMaddox

      There are two different facilities mentioned. Both are research facilities and are reconfigurable. They’re not actually power stations intended for continuous, everyday power generation, though they may well be used for power generation much of the time.

      The solar field in Newcastle has produced record high temperatures and supercritical steam. It is reconfigurable and does not do either of those things all of the time.

      The Cyprus installation is a 150kW *thermal* facility, so it would not be capable of generating 150kW of electric power (at least not continuously, and I’m not sure higher peak generation, withdrawing some or all of that peak power from storage, would be practical to achieve or worthwhile to attempt).

      None of the press releases say how much electricity, if any, is actually to be generated there, nor is it really clear from the CSIRO itself that there’s molten salt storage already installed at the Cyprus location, though both Giles and the Guardian article mention it. I’d say it’s fair to assume that even if it’s not actually already in use, molten salt storage is a field of research which both facilities will investigate at some time.

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