Mixed Greens: V3 Solar plans solar plant in Mildura

The developer of a potential “game-changing” solar PV technology has announced plans to construct a solar plant and a manufacturing facility at an industrial park at Thurla, south of Mildura. According to reports in the local newspaper, the Sunraysia Daily, and the website Energy Matters, V3 Solar Corporation has commissioned SIL Global to buy a 10 hectare site and begin construction of the manufacturing plant this year.

V3 Solar have developed so called conical “spin cells” (pictured right) that allow for a larger PV surface and potentially substantial gains in efficiency and power delivery.

The company says the rotating cones could harvest up to 20 times the amount of energy as normal flat-panel PV arrays. V3 Solar president Michael Neistat says the company plans to build a solar plant comprising 800,000 spin cell units, which would be the largest power station of its type in the world.

Silex says Australia favourable for CPV deals

Meanwhile, Silex Systems says it is well advanced in the construction of its 1.5MW demonstration plant in Mildura featuring its concentrated solar PV “dense array” technology. Construction is also continuing on its first project in the Middle East and Gulf regions, with a 1MW project at the Nofa equestrian sesort near Riyadh, in Saudi Arabia. The Mildura demonsration plant is a prelude to a 100MW facility in Mildura. Silex said the prospects for CPV project development in Australia are currently amongst the most favourable in the world.

“With the possibility of obtaining further support for project finance, implementation is potentially lower risk in the short term relative to offshore alternatives, which will be addressed in the medium term once product certification has been completed,” it said in its results statement last week. Silex shares jumped sharply last week after it announced that GE was looking to negotiate a commercial deal to use its laser nuclear enrichment technology.

US adds only renewables

According to the latest data from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Office of Energy Projects, the US added 1,231MW of new in-service electrical generating capacity in January — nearly three times as much as a year earlier – and all from wind, solar, and biomass sources. Wind accounted for the largest share of the new capacity with six new “units” providing 958MW, followed by 16 units of solar (267MW), and 6 units of biomass (6MW). No new generating capacity was reported for any fossil fuel (i.e., natural gas, coal, oil) or nuclear power sources.