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…
I was really wondering how they work, they are not solar photovoltaic cells, right?
What a wide range of industries and technologies you are capturing,
Looks like a very interesting job Michael 🙂
To be honest, I really can’t remember how they work exactly, even though the client did explain it to me Sreejith 🙂
It really was a most interesting job…more posts to come from it yet!
Hope you are well, and thank you for commenting!
Michael
If you enjoy your work, what more you could ask for, right?
Waiting for more stunning images…
Have a great day ahead, Michael 🙂
Thanks Sreejith, you too…!
They are photovoltaic but use concentrating mirrors to improve efficiency.
Basically the sunlight is reflected to a relatively small collector built of PV cells. This concentration of sunlight causes increased temperatures which means the cells require cooling.
Efficiencies in excess of 40% per sq m of glass can be achieved.
I hope this sheds some light on the process 😉
Great, thanks Antony!
It’s a shame they’ve gone bust again.
I wonder if they’ve thought about crowdfunding…