Multiscale engineering of durable absorber coatings for solar thermal power. This project aims to advance the long-term stability and efficiency of high-temperature absorber coatings for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants. Solar energy is a vast and largely untapped resource in Australia. The project will design superior light absorbers and scalable and low-cost approaches for their fabrication. Optimal absorber properties will be achieved by multi-scale engineering of the coating composition ....Multiscale engineering of durable absorber coatings for solar thermal power. This project aims to advance the long-term stability and efficiency of high-temperature absorber coatings for Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plants. Solar energy is a vast and largely untapped resource in Australia. The project will design superior light absorbers and scalable and low-cost approaches for their fabrication. Optimal absorber properties will be achieved by multi-scale engineering of the coating composition and micro-texturing via modelling of the light absorption and heat transport within these complex nanocomposite structures. The intended outcome of the project is a set of commercially competitive absorber coatings, with superior performance and durability, that support the development of CSP as a competitive technology for energy generation.Read moreRead less
Thermal transport in multi-phase flows for concentrating solar applications. This project seeks to advance the field of heat transfer in high-temperature systems involving liquid metals, with emphasis on energy storage and solar power technologies. The concept couples a tubular sodium boiler with a sodium chloride phase-change storage system for continuous energy supply. Sodium chloride is low cost and has a melting temperature suitable for a wide range of industrial processes. The project plans ....Thermal transport in multi-phase flows for concentrating solar applications. This project seeks to advance the field of heat transfer in high-temperature systems involving liquid metals, with emphasis on energy storage and solar power technologies. The concept couples a tubular sodium boiler with a sodium chloride phase-change storage system for continuous energy supply. Sodium chloride is low cost and has a melting temperature suitable for a wide range of industrial processes. The project plans to address the challenge of sodium stability in highly irradiated tubes by investigating mass, momentum, energy and radiative transport in liquid metals. It is intended that this will inform the design and testing of novel sodium boilers to provide stable and isothermal process heat for continuous or on-demand production of power, chemical fuels and commodities.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180100628
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$368,446.00
Summary
Machine vision techniques for solar power forecasting and generation. This project aims to advance the research in short-term solar power forecasting and optimise the generation process using machine vision techniques. This project will use cameras to capture images of sky and mirror surfaces of heliostats. The scientific novelties are the exploration of geometry-aware feature representations for solar power prediction and building three-dimensional models of mirror surfaces of heliostats to opt ....Machine vision techniques for solar power forecasting and generation. This project aims to advance the research in short-term solar power forecasting and optimise the generation process using machine vision techniques. This project will use cameras to capture images of sky and mirror surfaces of heliostats. The scientific novelties are the exploration of geometry-aware feature representations for solar power prediction and building three-dimensional models of mirror surfaces of heliostats to optimise the solar power generation process. The outcome is a working prototype to boost the solar power forecasting accuracy and a three-dimensional reconstruction system to be helpful for the solar power generation. These outcomes will highly benefit the short-term solar power forecasting, generation and electricity grid management systems.Read moreRead less
Thermal transport by design for fast and efficient solar thermochemical fuel production. This project aims to demonstrate the utility of the thermal transport by design approach to develop functionally graded reactive materials that allow for fast and efficient solar thermo-chemical fuel production. Prediction capabilities will be developed to optimise multi-scale radiative and gas transport coupled with non-stoichiometric redox reactions. Synthesis gas production will be demonstrated using the ....Thermal transport by design for fast and efficient solar thermochemical fuel production. This project aims to demonstrate the utility of the thermal transport by design approach to develop functionally graded reactive materials that allow for fast and efficient solar thermo-chemical fuel production. Prediction capabilities will be developed to optimise multi-scale radiative and gas transport coupled with non-stoichiometric redox reactions. Synthesis gas production will be demonstrated using the new structures in a prototype solar thermochemical reactor under high-flux irradiation. This project aims to advance the fields of thermal sciences and high-temperature solar thermochemical processing and expand the engineering knowledge base to pave the way to sustainable transportation with the existing infrastructure.Read moreRead less
Engineering stable, efficient perovskite solar cells. This project aims to address and resolve a critical issue facing perovskite solar cells which have enormous potential as a future technology for the large-scale generation of cheap, clean electricity: their instability under actual operating conditions. The project is expected to make significant fundamental advances in compositional, structural and interface engineering. This project will benefit the environment by paving the way for the wi ....Engineering stable, efficient perovskite solar cells. This project aims to address and resolve a critical issue facing perovskite solar cells which have enormous potential as a future technology for the large-scale generation of cheap, clean electricity: their instability under actual operating conditions. The project is expected to make significant fundamental advances in compositional, structural and interface engineering. This project will benefit the environment by paving the way for the widespread adoption of cheaper and more efficient solar cells.Read moreRead less
Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells: a pathway to 30 per cent efficiency. This project aims to develop a new type of solar cell that is much more efficient than today’s commercial silicon solar cells. Increasing cell efficiency is one of the most effective ways to reduce the cost of solar electricity, but silicon cells are approaching practical and theoretical limits. This project expects to boost the efficiency of silicon solar cells by adding a low-cost solar cell on top to create a tandem d ....Perovskite-silicon tandem solar cells: a pathway to 30 per cent efficiency. This project aims to develop a new type of solar cell that is much more efficient than today’s commercial silicon solar cells. Increasing cell efficiency is one of the most effective ways to reduce the cost of solar electricity, but silicon cells are approaching practical and theoretical limits. This project expects to boost the efficiency of silicon solar cells by adding a low-cost solar cell on top to create a tandem device. The expected outcome is a solar cell that can convert more than 30 per cent of incident sunlight into electricity, compared to 20-25 per cent for current cells. Developing cheap, high efficiency solar cells should further reduce the cost of solar electricity, and accelerate the uptake of clean energy.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE240100004
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$762,800.00
Summary
Ultrafast Infrared Spectroscopy Facility. The Ultrafast Infrared Spectroscopy Facility will provide a suite of techniques spanning the visible to mid-infrared spectral regions, on time scales corresponding to the emission of light, and energy conversion in low energy advanced functional materials. Research performed with this equipment will include photonic and thermal energy conversion; nanophotonics; quantum technologies and new infrared functional materials. This facility will enhance capacit ....Ultrafast Infrared Spectroscopy Facility. The Ultrafast Infrared Spectroscopy Facility will provide a suite of techniques spanning the visible to mid-infrared spectral regions, on time scales corresponding to the emission of light, and energy conversion in low energy advanced functional materials. Research performed with this equipment will include photonic and thermal energy conversion; nanophotonics; quantum technologies and new infrared functional materials. This facility will enhance capacity in probing new materials and devices in the near and mid-infrared regions, and will increase institutional and cross-disciplinary research collaboration.Read moreRead less
Stable perovskite-unlocking the full potential of low-cost solar cells. Despite impressive conversion efficiency, the perovskites' poor stability impedes their commercialization. This project aims to develop strategies for stable perovskite solar cells. This will be realized by a thorough understanding of the degradation origins with stimuli, and development of degradation mitigation strategies including materials and interfaces engineering, defect control and passivation, synergized by a system ....Stable perovskite-unlocking the full potential of low-cost solar cells. Despite impressive conversion efficiency, the perovskites' poor stability impedes their commercialization. This project aims to develop strategies for stable perovskite solar cells. This will be realized by a thorough understanding of the degradation origins with stimuli, and development of degradation mitigation strategies including materials and interfaces engineering, defect control and passivation, synergized by a systematic degradation evaluation, state-of-art multi-scale material and device characterizations and device modeling providing feedback for optimization. The project will bring new scientific findings, key technological step-change solutions, unlocking the full potential of perovskites for cheaper photovoltaic technologies.
Read moreRead less
Transforming Microgrid to Virtual Power Plant –ICT Frameworks,Tools,Control. The project aims to enhance large scale renewable penetrations to national power grid by advancing control, optimization, and ancillary services of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), considering different disruptive events including recent South Australian blackout. This project expects to create new control, frame communication architecture, develop plug and play type IoT enabled grid interfacing inverter, and optimize resou ....Transforming Microgrid to Virtual Power Plant –ICT Frameworks,Tools,Control. The project aims to enhance large scale renewable penetrations to national power grid by advancing control, optimization, and ancillary services of Virtual Power Plants (VPPs), considering different disruptive events including recent South Australian blackout. This project expects to create new control, frame communication architecture, develop plug and play type IoT enabled grid interfacing inverter, and optimize resource management for distributed VPPs. The anticipated benefits from this institutional level collaborations are that VPPs help in enhancing national power grid operations during normal and disruptive conditions when more renewables are connected and also secure benefits of consumers, prosumers, and grid operators.Read moreRead less
Ultrathin III-V Solar Cells via Crack-Assisted Layer Exfoliation. III-V semiconductors are excellent photovoltaic materials with highest demonstrated solar-to-electricity conversion efficiencies, but find limited usage in terrestrial applications due to high material and fabrication costs. This project aims to improve the cost-effectiveness of III-V solar cells by developing ultrathin III-V semiconductors via crack-assisted layer transfer approach and epitaxy-free fabrication via heterojunction ....Ultrathin III-V Solar Cells via Crack-Assisted Layer Exfoliation. III-V semiconductors are excellent photovoltaic materials with highest demonstrated solar-to-electricity conversion efficiencies, but find limited usage in terrestrial applications due to high material and fabrication costs. This project aims to improve the cost-effectiveness of III-V solar cells by developing ultrathin III-V semiconductors via crack-assisted layer transfer approach and epitaxy-free fabrication via heterojunction architectures, paving the way for cost-effective, high-efficiency, flexible solar cells. The expected outcomes include a disruptive technology for integrated photovoltaics, novel contact and passivation materials, as well as new knowledge generated in materials science and optoelectronics disciplines.Read moreRead less