RayGen wins Australian clean energy prize

RayGen, a Melbourne-based developer of concentrated solar PV technology that has landed a major deal in China, on Tuesday won the energy section of the Australian Technology Competition, as well as the People’s Choice award.

RayGen, which is to build a 10MW commercial demonstration project in China within two years, was voted winner of the energy prize ahead of Brisbane-based battery technology developer Nano-Nouvelle, and Perth-based Carnegie Wave Energy.

RayGen says its technology will be able to produce electricity at half the cost of competing technologies. It is also working on a storage option, although CEO Bob Cart says that storage is not necessarily needed in markets such as China where demand is soaring.

Cintep, which has developed a Recycling Shower system that reduces water and energy consumption from showering by 70 per cent without reducing flow rate, temperature, or time in the shower, won the built environment award.

Microbiogen, which produces novel strains of yeast using advanced breeding techniques for use in biofuels and other markets, won the food technology award.

The overall prize went to Safelash, a company that was prompted by a tragic death at a container port to invent a safer, cost saving lashing system that could save the shipping industry 10 billion liters of fuel and prevent deaths and container losses at sea.