ANU to partner in major new solar projects
Researchers from The Australian National University will partner with leading Australian and American institutions to deliver four major new solar energy projects. The Federal Government has today announced over $83 million in funding for a range of new projects under the Australian Solar Institute's United States-Australia Solar Energy Collaboration Strategic Research Initiative and Open Funding Round. ANU will lead a collaborative project, Machine-learning-based forecasting of distributed solar energy production , to develop new technologies to better forecast the output of photovoltaic energy generation systems, especially roof-top installations. It is also a partner in the two biggest initiatives, supported by ASI and ARENA, the $33 million US-Australia Institute for Advanced Photovoltaics , led by UNSW and the $35 million Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative led by the CSIRO. The fourth project Micro Urban Solar Integrated Concentrator (MUSIC) Centre, led by RMIT, will see ANU researchers work alongside industry and academic partners to develop innovative lightweight, thin, concentrating collector platforms for the delivery of up to 400 degrees Celsius thermal energy and electricity from building rooftops. Director of the Centre for Sustainable Energy Systems in the ANU College of Engineering and Computer Science, Andrew Blakers, welcomed the funding and said researchers at the University looked forward to contributing their expertise to drive further breakthroughs in solar energy technology.
