Abbotsford

Solar Systems is based in a new office and manufacturing facility in Melbourne, Australia, developed using 6 Star Green Star Rating system.

The following features of the Solar Systems facility have contributed to it having a significantly smaller impact on the environment.

• Retention of the historic industrial building fabric.

• Rainwater collection

• Energy efficient lighting and HVAC

• Materials selected to minimise toxicity, source impacts and disposal impacts.

These facilities include a clean room for the automated module manufacturing line and a receiver assembly area capable of manufacturing 500MW per year.

Bridgewater

Formally opened in October 2008, Solar Systems Bridgewater facility, located in Central Victoria, supports the development, field testing and operation of Solar Systems technologies in readiness for volume rollout.

Located at the facility are examples of Solar Systems' latest products, a comprehensive workshop, control room, office, and staff accommodation.

The site boasts the world's first heliostat-based central receiver concentrating photovoltaic (CPV) system. The 140kW testbed uses heliostat collectors to concentrate sunlight onto a central receiver at the top of a tower.  This new system promises lower installed costs and has been under test since commissioning at the end of 2008.

The technical performance targets have been met with a peak DC efficiency of 25% being consistently recorded.

The next phase will be to use the learnings from this project to design the preproduction prototype and assess the long term energy production performance.