A $10M power station planned for Lake Cargelligo, in central western New South Wales is to trial new technology not used before in Australia. The plant will use sunlight to power steam turbine equipment & generate three megawatts of electricity. Steve Hollis of Lloyd Energy Systems says the first 8 towers should be operational by Aug/09, months sooner than expected. He says the towers will be covered in solar panels not used in Australia before. "Most of the mirrors around the world are made from glass," he said. "But there are some problems with glass. It cracks in extreme temperature conditions. So we are actually using a new American product, which is a very thin plastic film that contains silver which is glued onto the fibreglass panels to form a reflective mirror." Mr Hollis said the panels are generating significant global interest. "Americans will be coming out to see it and we have proposals through a licensee to put projects in Spain, as well as a number of projects in Australia. Everyone is waiting to see this project up and running before they start their really big projects. It is very, very significant."
