Photon Energy N.V. (WSE: PEN, the 'Group') announcedtoday that it has entered a strategic partnership with the Australian technology company RayGen Resources Pty Ltd.('RayGen') in order to develop global renewable energy projects suitable for the roll-out of RayGen’s unique solar powerand electricity storage technology.
Photon Energy will act as a project developer and EPC contractorand – where suitable – as an equity investor in the projects, which will be supplied by RayGen. The partnership includes the development of a 100 MWp/1000 MWh solar-plus-storage project. Aspart of this strategic partnership, Photon Energy has also made a minority equity investment in RayGen.
Photon Energy's CEO Georg Hotar said: “Our investment inRayGen is our first step into the upstream segment of the solar industry and it comes at a crucial time. The elimination of solar energy’s intermittency and ensuring its 24-hour availability atgrid-competitive cost is the holy grail and RayGen has found it.Our partnership with RayGen will enable us to address a vast new universe of opportunities both on-grid as well as in off-grid remote locations including islands. We are thrilled to be working with RayGen’s team on pushing the boundaries of the solar energy industry in the coming years.”
“With this investment and partnership with RayGen we are tackling head-on the problem of intermittency of solar energy. TheRayGen PV Ultra module is the most efficient way to convert solar energy into electricity to date. Combining high efficiency concentrated PV generation with thermal absorption and storage, it achieves the highest energy density of any solar technology available today. The RayGen technology is a massive step forward providing cost effective base load, inertia and on-demand power as an integral part of our future energy supply. Photon Energy is very excited to be working with the RayGen team on both optimizing EPC outcomes and on developing utility-scale projects globally,” added Michael Gartner, Managing Director of Photon Energy Australia.
RayGen has developed a world-leading, low-costsolar-plus-storage solution by combining its proprietary PV Ultrasolar technology – which co-generates electricity and heat – with atailored electro-thermal storage cycle, called Thermal Hydro, thatuses existing industrial equipment to deliver high-performancelow-cost electricity storage.
PV Ultra generates electricity and heat from sunlight focusedonto a tower-mounted photovoltaic receiver. The PV Ultra receivercontains around 400 PV Ultra modules, each generating 2.5 kW ofelectricity and 5 kW of heat. The total is 1 MW of electricity and2 MW of heat for a combined 3 MW of power per PV Ultra field. PVUltra is a modular system – it can be scaled up and scaled down in1 MW units to suit a variety of projects and customers.
Thermal Hydro is a low-cost, large-scale, long-duration energystorage system developed by RayGen. Taking advantage of PV Ultra’sunique capacity to cogenerate electricity and heat, Thermal Hydroefficiently stores thermal energy in two insulated water reservoirswith a 90⁰C temperature difference. RayGen has adapted a thermalstorage technology widely used in northern European districtheating systems for this unique electricity storage application.When required, firm power is dispatched through a thermally drivenOrganic Rankine Cycle (ORC) engine, a proven generation technologyutilised in geothermal generation systems.
“RayGen is thrilled to be working with Photon Energy toaccelerate the deployment of our technology. RayGen is delighted tohave found a strategic partner in Photon Energy who shares ourmission to accelerate the clean energy transition. Moving toward100 per cent renewable energy will require storage solutions thatcan store power cost-effectively for hours, days or weeks and bedeployed at large scale around the world. With the calibre ofPhoton Energy's team and their breadth of experience withdeveloping and operating solar projects worldwide, RayGen’stechnology can soon be operating across a range of countries andsectors, helping to make the shift to renewable baseload power areality,” said Richard Payne, CEO of RayGen.
For its flagship solar-plus-storage project, RayGen is proposingto build a fully dispatchable renewable energy facility that willdeliver 4 MW of solar generation and 3 MW/50 MWh (17 hours) ofstorage at a project site Carwarp in north-west Victoria. RayGenrecently concluded an agreement for AUD 3 million in funding fromthe Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to conduct atechnical and commercial feasibility study for this project. Thesolar power plant will provide Australia’s National ElectricityMarket with day-night renewable electricity. The project will alsosupply synchronous power where it is critically needed in the WestMurray region.
Martin Kysly
Photon Energy
T +420 774 810 670
E martin.kysly@photonenergy.com
PV Ultra receiver co-generating electricity and heat – Imageby RayGen
RayGen's Newbridge site in operation – Image byRayGen
RayGen's unique PV Ultra system – Image byRayGen