The Future Makers: Solar Thermal Power

With recent attention on global warming, there's been a big focus on the problem, but what about the solutions? The Future Makers tells the story of key Australians leading the way on the world stage in renewable energy. Some are designing a future based on models in nature. Others are creating a sustainable energy model for a 21st C economy. People creating solutions that won't cost the earth.



"Solar Thermal electricity uses the sun's heat to actually make steam or make a very hot fluid...to turn a turbine and create electricity. Our technology is effectively just changing the boiler in such a system. Instead of using a nuclear boiler, we use a solar boiler. There are far more solar turbines on order throughout the world than there are nuclear turbines. Its just happened all of a sudden. And we also see timelines of plant installation which are between 2 and 4 years from the shaking of the hands, and nuclear's lucky to have 7 or 8 years". Dr David Mills

"The market for solar thermal electricity around the world is just enormous. We are currently concentrating on the Californian area and in the very near future, we'll see developments in Australia. The next big area, is likely to be North Africa, supplying power into Europe. There's already electrical cables across the Mediterranean, where that can be fed into. Then there are the western deserts of China which have the potential to be a major solar resource." Emeritus Professor Graham Morrison.