United States-Australia Solar Energy Collaboration (USASEC)

USASEC was formed to support collaborative research between the United States (US) and Australia that aims to fast-track cost reductions in capturing solar energy, beyond that which either country can achieve on its own.

USASEC Strategic Research Initiative

The Strategic Research Initiative (SRI) supports long-term, strategic and collaborative national research programs to underpin the researcher capacity required to deliver "over the horizon" technologies not yet commercially viable. ASI joined forces with the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) to fund the $33 million US-Australia Institute for Advanced Photovoltaics, led by the University of New South Wales, and the $35 million Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative, led by CSIRO.

The leveraged value of these projects is more than $175 million.

• University of NSW: US-Australia Institute for Advanced Photovoltaics
• CSIRO: Australian Solar Thermal Research Initiative (ASTRI)

USASEC Open Round projects

This round invested $15.5 million in projects that will accelerate the pace of innovation in the solar energy field. The leveraged aggregate project value is approximately $47 million.  

• CSIRO: Australian Solar Energy Forecasting System - Phase 1
• Australian National University: Machine-learning-based forecasting of distributed solar energy production
• Brisbane Materials Technology Pty Ltd: A pilot scale plant for the production of solar anti reflection coatings
• University of NSW: Low cost, high efficiency Copper Zinc Tin Sulphide (CZTS) on silicon multi-junction cells
• CSIRO: Optimisation of central receivers for advanced power cycles
• CSIRO: Plug and play solar: simplifying the integration of solar energy in hybrid applications
• CSIRO: Deployment of combined cycle using solar reformed gas in NW Australia
• University of NSW: Tools for design and scale-up of solar thermochemical reactors
• Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology: Micro Urban Solar Integrated Concentrators (MUSIC)
• Australian Photovoltaic Association: Data collection and analysis for the development of a climate-based module rating scheme
• Australian Photovoltaic Association: Consumer and utility interest in active participation in the distributed energy market

USASEC Foundation Projects

This round allocated close to $12 million across seven projects that build on existing areas of collaboration between the US and Australia. It focused on projects that will accelerate commercial outcomes in Hot Carrier cells, Multi-junction c-Si PV devices, high temperature CST receivers, and measurements and characterisation.

• The University of NSW: Cost effective GaAsP top solar cell grown on a high performance, low cost silicon solar cell
• The University of NSW: Multi-junction c-Si solar cells based on virtual Ge substrates
• The University of NSW: Towards a Hot Carrier solar cell
• CSIRO: Solar-driven supercritical CO2 Brayton Cycle
• CSIRO: Improving translation models for predicting the energy yield of photovoltaic power systems
• Australian National University: Improved high temperature receivers for dish concentrators
• CSIRO: Integrated solar radiation data sources over Australia

Three International Research Exchanges were also awarded to facilitate collaboration and knowledge sharing.