Wizard Power


Wizard Power Pty Ltd was an Australian company focused on solar technology research, development and commercialisation. The company was headquartered in Canberra, Australia. The company was wound up in September 2013, owing 8 million dollars to creditors and employees.

Technology

Wizard Power's technology portfolio use to include:

  • The Big Dish solar thermal concentrator. The Big Dish is the world's largest and highest performance paraboloidal dish solar concentrator capable of generating temperatures over 1,200oC for superheating steam or powering thermochemical processes. The energy generated through these processes is used for electricity production, energy storage, thermochemistry or process heat;
  • World leading, patent pending, focally accurate, solar mirror panel technology for Big Dishes and other solar concentrators; and
  • A suite of unique thermal and thermochemical solar energy storage systems, also patent pending.

These technologies enable the delivery of utility-scale, zero emission thermal and electrical energy for dispatchable power applications. The Australian National University developed the first versions of these technologies over a period of more than 30 years. The current Wizard Power Big Dish ‘commercial’ design, represented by the prototype located at the ANU, is based on novel space-frame and mirror panel systems that are optimised for the cost-effective deployment of large (tens to hundreds of megawatt capacity) solar fields.

Wizard Power claimed they provided the research, development, technology support and systems integration services necessary to facilitate the development of solutions and projects using these technologies.

In addition to these technologies, Wizard Power was supposedly developing high-temperature solar gasification solutions for the conversion of coal, biomass and other carbonaceous materials to liquid fuels, plastics and fertilisers.

Wizard Power is tried to establish a demonstration site in Whyalla, South Australia which will showcase the company's energy storage technologies. The Whyalla Solar Storage plant will be a pre-commercial demonstration of energy storage, with full integration, demonstration of start up and shut down procedures, ability to handle intermittent solar input, and deliver energy on demand. This project has been supported by the Commonwealth Government of Australia's Advance Electricity Storage Program.[1][2]

The Whyalla SolarOasis [3] will use 300 Wizard Power Big Dish solar thermal concentrators to deliver a 40MWe solar thermal power plant. It was to be built 4 km north of Whyalla adjacent to the solar storage research facility. The plant is designed as a peaking power plant operating in the day and early evening to deliver electricity when it is most in demand.

230 million dollar project failure

A $230 million [4] project was to use Wizard Power Technology to generate 66GWh of solar electricity each year. for a variety of commonwealth and corporate mismanagement reasons the project did not proceed past the proposal stage.

Renewable Energy Demonstration Program

The Whyalla SolarOasis has been supported by the Australian Government's Renewable Energy Demonstration Program [5][6] with a A$60 million grant and will be developed by the SolarOasis consortium.

The Commonwealth funding was cancelled in June 2013.[7]

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References
  1. World's leading baseload solar power station for Australia University of Sydney accessed 14 Aug 2008
  2. Govt urged to boost solar incentives ABC accessed 14 Aug 2008
  3. www.solaroasis.net.au SolarOasis Project
  4. Budget funding helps huge solar project get underway ABC Rural Online
  5. $92 Million For Large-Scale Solar Demonstration Projects The Hon Martin Ferguson - Minister for Resources and Energy
  6. Whyalla Region Tackling Climate Change The Hon Simon Crean MP - Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government
  7. Whyalla SolarOasis Power Plant
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