History

Solar Systems Ltd was originally founded in 1992 to research the generation

of electricity from concentrated solar energy.

In 1997 Solar Systems began work at White Cliffs in New South Wales (Australia). This site had 14 small concentrator dishes owned by the local electricity supplier and generated electricity using a solar-thermal cycle. It was installed as part of a research effort by Australian National University. The dishes were converted to incorporate Solar Systems’ technology, providing valuable data on the long-term field performance of concentrated PV modules.

The first 500x concentrator dish was constructed at a test facility in Fosterville, Victoria, (Australia). This site was used to optimize the design of the dish concentrator technology and drew on the considerable experience gained at the initial installation at White Cliffs.

In 2003 the company completed the first of several solar plant installations in remote areas of Australia. These Solar installations were supported by government grants. The first installation was at Umuwa in South Australia and utilized Silicon cells packaged into a dense array module. The silicon solar cells used Dense Array technology so that both electrical contacts were on the underside the chip. This enabled a dense packing arrangement of the cells and the basis of the further cell improvements in Dense Array technology. The dish concentrator systems installed utilized a 500x concentration ratio to generate 22% electrical conversion efficiency with Silicon cells.

The company developed 3 further sites in the Northern Territory which were connected to diesel generator systems. These systems supplemented the electrical supply to remote aboriginal communities. These sites are located at Hermannsburg, Yuendumu and Lajamanu. These sites together generate about 720kW or 1,555,000 kWh per annum.

In 2005 the company began investigating implementation of high efficiency triple junction solar cells with conversion effectiveness initially around 30% and currently being produced with around 40% efficiency. The company partnered with Spectrolab (subsidiary of ultra-Boeing), to develop a proprietary dense array cell for implementation in the dish concentrator systems.

In 2006 the company began discussions with the Australian governments (State and Federal) on the development of the World’s first CPV utility scale solar power station. With the support of the Victoria Government and Federal Government, the company was provided with grants of $A125 million (which are milestone based) to develop a power station in Mildura, (north western Victoria). The station was to be based on Heliostat ‘power tower’CPV technology/HCPV similar to the power tower generation plants developed for Solar Thermal (CSP). During this period the company installed triple junction cells in its silicon based concentrator systems and began long term real-time field analysis of output performance and reliability testing.

The Victoria state government has committed A$50 Million (based on progress milestones) to complete the 100MW CPV Solar utility plant at Mildura. The Federal government is currently working with Silex to novate the additional A$75 million for the 100MW CPV Solar power station

Silex Systems also entered into an agreement with the Federal Government (APP program) and Victoria State Government (Department of Primary Industries) to complete the 2MW Utility unit at Mildura and began a commercialization program to complete development of the next generation product, the CS500-5 Dish CPV system.

In 2008, company partnered with Tru-Energy (a subsidiary of China Light and Power). During this period the company completed installation of a fifth solar dish system power plant in Queensland for Ergon Energy, a government backed Utility, and up-graded the Umuwa solar plant to be the first site with all Triple Junction cells.

During 2008 and 2009, the company began looking for additional investment to support the development of the H-CPV technology after completing a 140kW H-CPV demonstration unit at a new test and demonstration facility in Bridgewater, central Victoria. As a result of the Global Financial Crisis (GFC), the company was unable to raise sufficient capital and went into administration in September 2009.

In March 2010, Silex Systems purchased the assets (including the technology IP) of Solar Systems, including facilities and equipment at Abbotsford (Melbourne) and Bridgewater to continue the development and commercialization of the technology. The Solar Plants were sold to the companies who owned the Power Purchase Agreements (PPA’s) operating for the Solar Plants.

The company is now installing 16 dish systems at the Bridgewater test facility to test the new CPV CS500-5 dish system – the Company’s first product to be released to market later in 2011.

The ‘new’ Solar Systems Pty Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Silex Systems is currently developing an expanded marketing focus into the USA, Europe and Middle East Markets with its CPV Dish System product.