Australian needs smart capital to transform its energy sector and build a clean energy future. Australia has the sunshine and space for investment in compelling solar energy technology that provides reliable clean energy, with the potential to significantly reduce costs on future projects.

An example: the Ivanpah solar power tower in the Mojave desert in the US. It is owned and operated by NRG Energy with technology designed and developed by BrightSource Energy:

Power towers are based on a relatively simple idea. The technology works by using a field of mirrors, called heliostats, to concentrate the sun’s rays onto a solar receiver on top of a tower. The solar receiver generates steam, which then spins a traditional turbine and generator to make electricity. Power towers are very efficient because all those mirrors focus a tremendous amount of solar energy onto a small area to produce steam at high pressure and temperature (up to 1000 degrees F)

Ivanpah is not the only large scale solar tower being built in this part of the US. So why not in Australia? Because the business-as-usual crowd say that Australia lives on the back of LNG, coal and iron ore. Hence their junk science campaign against wind farms to defend a fossil-fuel economy.