![ANU SG4 dish October 2014](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/06/ANU_SG4_dish_October_2014.jpg)
The Big Dish is a parabolic dish concentrator developed by the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
's Solar Thermal Group.
The initial prototype, SG3
, was constructed on the Canberra campus of the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
in 1994. A modified version of SG3 was exported to
Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center
The Ben-Gurion National Solar Energy Center at Midreshet Ben-Gurion is the national alternative energy research institute of Israel. It was established in 1987 by the Ministry of National Infrastructures to study promising alternative and clean ...
at the
Ben Gurion University in Israel. In 2006, a joint project led by the Solar Thermal Group with commercial partner
Wizard Power
Wizard Power Pty Ltd a former Australian company headquartered in Canberra, focused on solar technology research, development, and commercialization. One of their notable achievements was the creation of the Big Dish solar thermal concentrator, ...
, and funding from Australian's Government's Renewable Energy Development Initiative,
began the design and construction of SG4
.
[
] SG4 is located next to the SG3 dish, and was completed in 2009.
Wizard Power
Wizard Power Pty Ltd a former Australian company headquartered in Canberra, focused on solar technology research, development, and commercialization. One of their notable achievements was the creation of the Big Dish solar thermal concentrator, ...
holds the patent rights for the SG4 Big Dish structure and is developing commercial installations which will see arrays of hundreds of dishes delivering tens to hundreds of megawatts of power. The first of these will be the Whyalla Solar Oasis which will use 300 Big Dishes to deliver a 40MWe solar thermal power plant. Construction is expected to commence in late 2013.
See also
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Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
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Solar thermal collector
A solar thermal collector collects heat by absorbing sunlight. The term "solar collector" commonly refers to a device for solar hot water heating, but may refer to large power generating installations such as solar parabolic troughs and sola ...
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Concentrating solar power
Concentrated solar power (CSP, also known as concentrating solar power, concentrated solar thermal) systems generate solar power by using mirrors or lenses to concentrate a large area of sunlight into a receiver. Electricity is generated when ...
(CSP)
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Solar tracker
A solar tracker is a device that orients a payload toward the Sun. Payloads are usually solar panels, parabolic troughs, fresnel reflectors, lenses or the mirrors of a heliostat.
For flat-panel photovoltaic systems, trackers are used to mi ...
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SolarPACES
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Wizard Power
Wizard Power Pty Ltd a former Australian company headquartered in Canberra, focused on solar technology research, development, and commercialization. One of their notable achievements was the creation of the Big Dish solar thermal concentrator, ...
References
External links
ANU Big Dish solarWizard Powercompany website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Solar Thermal Energy
Solar thermal energy
Energy conversion
Solar energy in Australia