Is Medium Temperature Solar Thermal Process Steam Viable For Australia? Some Preliminary Results

A new solar boiler technology is shown to be financially viable (in mid-1986 SA prices) against LPG for private industry conditions in inland New South Wales. This conclusion could also hold against natural gas for the Sydney region in the near future. If continuous positive net cash flow is required by the business enterprise, then some form of loan strategy should be preferred to up-front purchase of the solar collector. The technology is also shown to be economically viable for public sector installations. Slightly longer time periods are required for positive net present values to be obtained than for industry, and in three of the four cases examined this was achieved before the end of the solar collector's first life cycle. For the fourth case, a positive net present value was obtained when the annual energy collected was taken as 2.6 rather than 2.0 GJ per M2. The higher figure is considered realistically representative of the more advanced version of the solar collector currently being develope d.