Scientists at Australian National University have set a world record for efficiency for a solar thermal dish generating steam for power stations. The team halved energy losses and achieved a 97 percent conversion of sunlight into steam through a new receiver for a solar concentrator dish. This beats commercial systems by about seven percentage points…It can be combined with heat storage systems and can supply power on demand at a significantly lower cost than solar energy from photovoltaic panels which has to be stored in batteries…The aim is to get costs down to 12 cents a kilowatt-hour of electricity…The ANU solar concentrator is the largest of its kind in the world at 500 square metres.

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