The following images were captured at Solar Systems Bridgewater solar energy facility, which is located in central Victoria, approximately 2 hours from Melbourne.

This particular week I had been moving from location to location around Victoria photographing a variety of energy projects, all the while getting absolutely soaked in the wild and wet weather. In the morning I had photographed a series of miners portraits in the pouring rain, and knowing that I had a solar energy facility as next on my list I was certainly praying to the weather Gods for some sunshine. It would certainly have been rather hard to sell the concept of solar energy with hail stones bouncing off the mirrors (we had been stung by large hail pellets only 2 hours previously…)!

Thankfully the weather Gods were receptive!

This was an extremely interesting facility as it also serves as a testing and training location for Solar Systems; unfortunately we were on a fairly tight schedule and so could not linger, however our client liaison guide did explain some of the fascinating technology behind the installation. I certainly enjoyed shooting a series of full dish images as well as some close-up abstracts…

All images taken with my usual combination of Canon lenses such as the 17mm TS-E, 85mm f1.2 L, 70-200 f2.8 L II IS USM mounted on a 5D Mk III body…

I have always been fascinated by the concept of solar energy; as far as I can see it ticks all of the right boxes environmentally, being clean, (relatively) low cost and renewable. I suspect (and hope) that as technology improves we will be more and more capable of effectively harnessing this wonderful resource…