JOHN Lasich was studying global warming and climate change back in the early 1970s, when really only specialist scientists were aware of the phenomenon and the difficult challenges it would create.
Half a century later, he’s developed a new type of solar plant that could help solve the problem, save the planet and make a fortune, and he’s done it at Carwarp.
Dr Lasich is the founder of RayGen, a company that has invented a way to store and distribute solar energy even when the sun isn’t shining by creating a “battery” that’s actually just an insulated dam of hot water.
RayGen’s $30 million demonstration site in a Carwarp paddock is now a small working power plant that is operating so well it has attracted investment from major international energy companies including AGL
The energy giant controversially announced its intention to move away from coal-fired electricity and the planet-warming carbon dioxide it creates.
The RayGen plant, which generates enough energy to power hundreds, or even thousands, of homes was designed to prove the technology works, rather than operate commercially. The idea was to create a model that could be scaled up substantially elsewhere. But an announcement from the federal government this week has opened up the potential for local expansion as well.
Commercial solar power in the Mallee has until now faced two significant and related hurdles.
The first has been that it can only generate power during the day, and the second is that the power grid doesn’t have enough capacity to make use of the energy the sun can supply. But the RayGen model overcomes the first of these obstacles by being able to store power and distribute it when it’s needed.
The second has been addressed by the Federal Government’s announcement this week that the KerangLink interconnector between Victoria and NSW would be fast-tracked and completed by 2028, vastly expanding grid capacity and creating a road of wire on which local solar generators can get their product to market.
For Dr Lasich, the progress of his own company and the general move towards renewable energy are signs that the world is finally taking real steps to combat climate change.
“Some people have known the need for a fair while, but all the movement, all the actions, are now being taken to accommodate it, so it’s fantastic to see that,” he said. He added that successful renewable energy sites would help build new communities for the future.
“Fifty to a hundred years ago, communities grew up around coal mines,” he said. “Now they’re going to grow up around new energy centres, such as solar.
“That’s the sort of thing I’ve thought about and aspired to for 40 years.”
At Carwarp, RayGen uses 20,000 square metres of curved glass mirrors to focus sunlight on to special photo-voltaic cells atop towers. The cells convert some of this energy directly into electricity for immediate distribution, but the rest is used to heat water stored in an insulated, covered dam at 95 degrees.
The hot water then heats ammonia, which has a lower boiling point, and its vapour is then used, under pressure, to drive power-generating turbines at any time of day the company chooses. The ammonia is then cooled and reused when the process starts again.
“What we do is we take that midday energy and we shift it to when it’s needed most, when other solar farms aren’t generating electricity,” said Richard Payne, the company’s chief executive, who was thrilled to hear of the KerangLink announcement this week.
“It is very good news for us,” he said. “We knew that the interconnector was going in, but bringing it forward will mean that projects such as ours can be deployed at even larger scales in that area (the Mallee).”
