High–flux solar simulator for proof of feasibility and characterization of novel solar driven energy conversion and storage processes and devices, reactor technology development (solar materials and solar fuels), material testing, and experimental validation of process modeling and optimization. This facility is unique and has been designed in collaboration with the Solar Thermal Group at ANU. The technical design and fabrication has been done by Kinoton. It consists of 18 radiation modules, arranged in two concentric rows. Each module consists of a 2.5 kWe short-arc xenon lamp, coupled to a truncated ellipsoidal mirror of high-surface quality. The predicted power in the focal plane is 7.5 kW (for an aperture of diameter 5 cm) with a peak flux of 21.7 MW/m2. Details of the optical design and characterization can be found in our publication.
Large-scale, on-sun dish (7 m diameter, 38 kW thermal input power) is used for long-term, on-sun testing of solar thermochemical, solar thermal, and concentrated photoelectrochemical systems.
AM1.5 solar simulators (LED and AAA Xe-based) with custom made photoelectrochemical test cell, potentiostat, and gas chromatography, as a characterization platform for photoelectrochemical devices and components.
Custom made thermal energy storage testbed of MJ-scale with 3 modular chambers for testing and characterization of heat storage units.
Computational facilities for advanced heat, mass and current transfer, electric and magnetic field, fluid flow, and chemistry modeling.