The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) is helping fund a $30 million ‘solar hydro’ power plant trial. 

ARENA says RayGen Resources Pty Ltd (RayGen) has been awarded a $15 million grant to construct its first of a kind power plant, comprising 4 MW of solar PV generation and 3 MW/50 MWh (17 hours) of dispatchable storage capacity in north-west Victoria.

RayGen’s ‘solar hydro’ power plant will use its PV Ultra technology; a concentrating photovoltaic solar co-generation tower, combined with electro-thermal storage. 

RayGen’s concentrated PV technology generates heat as a by-product which is captured and used for thermal storage. The electro-thermal storage system consists of an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) turbine, industrial chillers and two insulated water-based thermal storage pits or reservoirs, each roughly the size of four Olympic size swimming pools. 

One of the reservoirs is kept at a temperature of 90 degrees and the other at close to 0 degrees, and the temperature difference is used to generate dispatchable electricity using ORC turbines.

RayGen says its ‘solar hydro’ technology offers a renewable, modular and scalable solution to the emerging need for longer duration storage that has been identified by the Australian Energy Market Operator in its Integrated System Plan.

The $30 million project includes this fully dispatchable renewable energy facility as well as a new manufacturing facility that will allow RayGen to prepare for forecast growth and expansion of its project pipeline in Australia.

The demonstration scale facility will be located in Carwarp, Victoria near Mildura, and will export renewable electricity to the National Electricity Market (NEM). The project will participate in wholesale energy and Frequency Control Ancillary Services (FCAS) markets once operational, and is eligible for Large-scale Generation Certificates.

ARENA previously supported RayGen with a total of $8.67 million in funding to develop its PV Ultra technology and build the 1 MW PV Ultra pilot project in Newbridge, Victoria. The pilot project has been operational for over two years powering a local mushroom farm.