The Australian government has announced funding to construct a $27 million (US$21 million) “solar hydro” power plant in north-western Victoria able to generate, store, and deliver electricity on demand. The power plant will demonstrate RayGen’s patented solar-plus-storage technology which uses a photovoltaic (PV) module 4,000 times more powerful than standard solar panels. This module is mounted on a tower above an array of smart mirrors that concentrate sunlight on the module. From this, the module produces 1MW of electricity and 2MW of heat in the form of hot water. The heat captured is stored in a large, covered, and insulated water pit which can store thousands of MWh of energy. Some of this electricity is used to power a cold water reservoir in a second storage pit, each roughly the size of four Olympic size swimming pools. The two pits maintain a temperature difference of 90 degrees, representing potential energy, which …