2014 Asia-Pacific Solar Research Conference
The 2014 Asia-Pacific Solar Research Conference was held at the University of New South Wales last week from the 8 to 10 December. This was a great opportunity for ASTRI researchers to share their work and to network with representatives from industry and with other concentrating solar thermal researchers. There were two sessions dedicated to concentrating solar thermal (CST) research and a poster session. ASTRI research was presented at each of these sessions. Alicia Bayon presented work from her work in thermochemical cycles, while Mehdi Aghaei Meybodi presented his work on estimating the LCOE based on variable cost and solar data and Rhys Jacob presented his techno-economic analysis of phase change material thermal energy storage systems.
The ARENA ‘Industry/Researchers’ Panel Discussion was also held in the morning of the 10th December with representatives of the different solar research areas. ASTRI researcher Dr Joe Coventry represented CST technologies. There were a range of topics discussed during this session that were relevant for CST. These included the importance of a unified voice in promoting renewable energy, information dissemination, fostering commercialization and training of relevant trades, energy storage options, resource forecasting, reliability and continuous improvement. Everyone who attended the conference came away with new knowledge and outlooks on these issues along with an understanding of the work others are doing in CST research.