Dr. Keith Lovegrove unveiled the ANU's new solar thermal dish in September at the SolarPACES international solar thermal conference in Berlin to much acclaim. This will be the first time it will be presented in Melbourne.

It is the world's biggest solar dish that comes with a mass production system that can build one dish a day. The dish has the highest optical efficiency of any commercial solar technology in the world and a field of 500 produces 100MW electrical power. ANU's dishes can be used on undulating ground, which is difficult for current solar thermal systems that use mirror fields or troughs.

Dr. Keith Lovegrove will also talk about replacing all of Australia's energy needs with this solar technology used in conjunction with thermal salt storage.

Dr. Keith Lovegrove is a senior lecturer in Engineering in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology at the Australian National University (ANU). He heads the ANU Solar Thermal Group which works on a range of projects involving high and low temperature thermal conversion of solar energy. This includes looking at dish and trough concentrators and thermochemical energy storage. He is widely published in scientific journals and has advised the Australian Government on CSP . Dr Lovegrove and his team are at the forefront of International research into concentrated solar power.

For more info check out :

http://www.beyondzeroemissions.org/discussiongroup

Further reading: http://engnet.anu.edu.au/DEresearch/solarthermal...

http://solar-thermal.anu.edu.au/pages/DownloadPi...

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/05/2...

Time: 630 ~ 8pm Monday 7th December 2009 Event location: Sans Frontiers Room, 2nd Floor, Kindness House, 288 Brunswick St, Fitzroy VIC 3065. Wheelchair access available via lift; 2 flights of stairs. Happy to assist with access. Please call 0421 272 884 to arrange. Cost: Gold coin donation