A deal struck between Victorian solar company RayGen Resources Pty Ltd and China’s JuYe Solar will create 200 jobs in Victoria.
Under the agreement, funding will be provided for the construction of a manufacturing facility in Blackburn, which will produce RayGen receivers for concentrated solar photovoltaic (CSPV) systems to be sold to customers in China.
Among those customers is China Three Gorges New Energy Company, one of the world’s largest energy companies.
Earlier this year, a Memorandum of Understanding between RayGen, JuYe Solar and China Three Gorges was signed relating to the supply of receivers for up to 500 megawatts of concentrated solar photovoltaic power plants in China.
It’s expected the manufacturing line facility for RayGen in Victoria will boost its workforce from 25 to 225 over the next five years.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews welcomed the new agreement.
“This deal demonstrates the value of Victoria’s growing trading relationship with China and shows that two-way investment is beneficial to both our state and our largest trading partner.”
RayGen’s Concentrated Solar PV (CSPV) technology utilises heliostats (mirrors) focusing sunlight concentrated 750 times onto a special solar cell array receiver. Each tower mounted one square metre array consists triple junction GalnP/GaAs/Ge cells supplied by Boeing Spectrolab and has a 250kW generation capacity.
“Because of the power of concentration, RayGen uses 50% less collector area, 99.9% less converter area and 95% less manufacturing capex than PV,” says the company. “The end result is clean, reliable and high quality electricity at low cost.”
RayGen’s technology requires water for cooling, but as it is closed-loop system, once installed it requires no regular top-up.
In December last year, RayGen announced it had produced the highest-ever rate for the conversion of sunlight into electricity – a ‘system efficiency’ of 40.4%.
In March this year, RayGen marked the official opening of its first CSPV power station at Newbridge, Victoria – a project partly funded by the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). The installation consists of a 200kW Dense Array CPV receiver and 64 self-powered, self-aligning heliostats.
RayGen was established in 2010 by Bob Cart and Dr. John Lasich.
