The partnership follows China's decision to produce 1.4 GW of CST by 2018 and 5 GW by 2020, effectively doubling the number of CST installations.

Under the deal, Thermal Focus will manufacture, market, sell and install CSIRO's patented low-cost heliostats, field control software and design software in China.

The revenue will be shared with Australia using the funds for further climate mitigation research.

This concentrated sunlight can be used to heat and store hot molten salt, which can generate superheated steam to drive a turbine for electricity generation.

The low cost of storing thermal energy gives CST technology the potential for medium to large-scale solar power, even when there is no sunlight.

A heliostat field can constitute up to 40% of the total plant cost, hence low-cost, high-precision heliostats are needed.

The CSIRO makes heliostats that are smaller than the conventional ones that use an advanced control system to get high performance.

The software used optimises the heliostats' configuration before they are made and manages each heliostat to ensure optimum reflected heat is focused on the receiver, thus maximising the power that can be produced.

The China deal comes after solar thermal partnerships with Japan's Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems, and the Cyprus Institute and Heliostat SA in Australia.

Wei Zhu of Thermal Focus acknowledged CSIRO's reputation in R&D and work in solar thermal research.

"CSIRO's solar thermal technology combined with our manufacturing capability will help expedite and deliver solar thermal as an important source of renewable energy in China," he said.

"This partnership will help us commercialise this emerging technology on a larger scale."