Australia Day honours for solar warriors  

With all the doom and gloom in the air surrounding renewables and the government’s scrutinising of the industry, and all the stories about solar prosperity overseas – it was pleasing to see some of our homegrown solar pioneers honoured during the Australia Day ceremonies over the weekend. They share a grand vision of the future, one that is powered by the sun (an inevitability, they say.)

Dr Graham Morrison, Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of New South Wales and Dr David Mills, formerly a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Sydney both have Member of the Order of Australia medals to add to their illustrious credentials.

For Morrison embracing solar power isn’t a luxury, it’s an imperative. “There really is no choice. The energy supplies that we have currently got, coal and gas, we have only got for another 100 years – that is the timespan of our grandchildren,” says Morrison.

His research lead him to the conclusion that solar and wind power alone could satisfy the energy needs of the United States, and the same result can be achieved in Australia.

At the forefront of their research is developments on improvements in the field of compact linear Fresnel reflectors. Linear Fresnel reflectors are lengthy mirrors that focus the sun’s energy (concentrating it up to 30x) to be collected by a fliud, often a special oil with extremely high-temperature tolerance. The heat is then used in a heat exchanger to power a steam generator.

Unfortunately, their success has been so great that we’ve lost the two researchers to the United States where they can benefit from the wealth of investment funds not available in Australia, but unleashing our local talent on the rest of the world has always been a positive endorsement for our particular brand of ingenuity.