Here comes the sun: A Hawthorn company is at the forefront of solar energy

Age
Monday 25/2/2008 Page: 13

THERE are only a handful of current uses for the metal gallium, mainly in things such as electronic semiconductors. It tends to be found as a byproduct of other metals such as zinc and, if not properly extracted, can make the other metal brittle.

But the future demand for gallium is likely to rise rapidly thanks to one Melbourne company. Solar Systems has developed a new way to produce relatively high amounts of electricity from sunlight, a high-demand product in this age of globally warmed concern. Just 18 months ago, Solar Systems, which has its headquarters in Hawthorn, was just another high technology development company clamouring for attention in a sceptical market. Then it had a staff of 40, now there are 100 with another 20 about to start in the next few weeks. Then the former federal government and the State Government announced funding to build a $450 million 154 megawatt power station at Mildura - the biggest and most efficient photovoltaic plant in the world.

On Friday, the Age revealed the company also held the key to producing the greenhouse-friendly hydrogen gas through a patented technique developed by one of its founders, John Lasich, in 1991. He discovered that the main means of producing hydrogen from water- a process called electrolysis - was twice as efficient if the water was heated to more than 1000 degrees.

As the new solar power station was faced with problems of how to cool the cells once the concentrated sun's rays were focused on them, taking off the excess heat to produce hydrogen as a byproduct seemed a solution. The hydrogen would then be burned to produce electricity when the sun was not shining or be sold as a fuel. The journey began in the 1970s when Mr Lasich, then finishing his university studies in physics and electronics, joined some colleagues in examining the possibilities of solar power.

In the 1990s they became serious about their research and development by forming a company. In 2000 they hired professional management and took on private shareholders. Managing director since has been Dave Holland. "Currently photovoltaic solar only accounts for 0.05% of the world's electricity generation;' he says. Wind power has been taken up by more as the renewable energy of choice, but it is harder to predict than solar. "We can see that clouds are coming and can tell a gas plant to get ready to come on stream;' he says.

Holland says one of the problems with solar to date had been that the normal silicon solar panels of the type people put on their roofs were expensive and had low efficiency. "Most silicon panels produce eight to 12 watts of electricity for every 100 watts of sunlight;' Holland says. "Our gallium cells, which we are producing in conjunction with Boeing in the US, produce 35 to 40 watts'. Today, the company will be making a public announcement on the progress of its Mildura project and on moves to market its technology internationally.