Chinese company Thermal Focus has inked a new deal with Australia-based Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) to develop, sell, and install CSIRO patented concentrating solar thermal generation technology.

The deal is a major win for the Australian science and research institute as China has been named by IEA as one of the leading countries in the solar thermal sector. John Grimes, of the Australian Solar Council, said that the collaboration offers a "significant commercial opportunity."

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Meanwhile, Zhu Wei from Thermal Focus stated that CSIRO has a good standing in the segment and its designs are suitable for the Chinese market. The Chinese company stated that its manufacturing capabilities may make the utmost use of CSIRO's thermal technology to develop solar thermal as an important source of renewable energy in the country.

Larry Marshall, chief executive of CSIRO, said that "Through this collaboration and our continued solar research, we will be helping to generate cleaner energy, cost savings and technology export benefits for Australia; all lowering global greenhouse gas emissions."

The heliostat technology uses a large number of mirrors for concentrating reflected sunlight onto a receiver. These mirrors are designed to follow the direction of the sun during the day. The beam is used for heating 'molten salt', which in turn produces an extremely hot stream for generating electricity using a turbine. 

China is looking to promote the use of concentrated solar technology in the country. It is looking to enhance its capacity to 1.4GW by 2018 while its target for year 2020 is pegged at 5GW.

TagsCSIRO, solar panel, Thermal Focus