CPV to power green miles at Aussie Airport grid

MOUNTAIN VIEW, US: SolFocus announced that developer Ingenero Pty Ltd will install a 235 kilowatt power station using SolFocus solar arrays to provide solar power at Alice Springs Airport in the Northern Territory of Australia. The Alice Springs Airport power station will deliver approximately 600 megawatt hours of electricity directly to the airport’s internal electricity grid, which is roughly 28 percent of the airport’s electricity demand and equivalent to the power used in about 70 homes in Alice Springs. The airport will be powered by 28 SolFocus 1100S concentrator photovoltaic (CPV) arrays.

Alice Springs is the ideal location for CPV technology and Ingenero is proud to be able to bring SolFocus technology to Australia for the first time," said Rodger Whitby, General Manager of Generation at Ingenero. "With SolFocus CPV technology and Ingenero, Alice Springs Airport will become a solar leader in Australia."

Under the Australian government's $94 million Solar Cities program, the project will receive $1.132 million from the Australian government; approximately half of the total project cost. The solar power station will be located near the Alice Springs Airport terminal, and will contain 235 kW of CPV arrays that will reduce the airport’s carbon emissions by around 470 ton of carbon dioxide per year. Construction is expected to be complete by the end of the third quarter, 2010.

"As a major electricity user in Alice Springs, this project is an ideal way to demonstrate our commitment to harnessing the benefits of renewable energy,” said Ian Kew, CEO of Northern Territory Airports. “The SolFocus advanced CPV technology provides the potential for reduction of power costs within the next few years.”

"This project between SolFocus and Igenero is the first of its kind in Australia," said Mark Crowley, president and CEO of SolFocus.

“The Alice Springs Airport solar project is paving the way for SolFocus CPV technology in Australia and will demonstrate how scalable CPV technology can deliver unrivalled energy output in hot, sunny regions with less impact on the surrounding environment than standard solar panels,” added Steve Horne, chief technology officer of SolFocus.

Australia’s solar energy consumption represented 0.1 percent of Australia’s total primary energy consumption from 2007-2008, with solar thermal water heating has been the predominant form of solar energy use to date.1 "This pioneering solar project at Alice Springs Airport is just the beginning of a solar transformation in Australia that will harness the continent’s abundant sunlight to deliver low cost, renewable energy,” added Crowley. "SolFocus is optimistic about Australia’s solar market and is confident that CPV technology is well-matched with Australia’s territories and dynamic environment.”

SolFocus CPV technology employs a system of patented reflective optics to concentrate sunlight 650 times onto small, highly efficient solar cells. The SolFocus SF-1100S system deployed at the airport uses approximately 1/1,000th of the active, expensive solar cell material compared to traditional photovoltaic panels. In addition, the cells utilized in SolFocus CPV systems have over twice the efficiency of traditional silicon photovoltaic cells. SolFocus also offers environmental benefits including next-to-no water usage, a small land footprint with dual use potential, and no permanent shadowing or wildlife corridor disruption. Additionally, SolFocus CPV provides the shortest energy payback and lowest greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity of any solar technology. In solar-rich regions like Australia and the southwest US, the SolFocus CPV technology yields significantly more energy than other technologies with an extremely light environmental footprint.