Industry lifted by $A1.4 billion scheme to build four large plants

By Giles Parkinson

Australia has dramatically increased its support for the country’s nascent concentrated solar thermal industry, announcing a tenfold boost in government funding to underpin the construction of four utility-scale solar power plants by 2015, including two CSP plants.

The Solar Flagships programme announced by Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson will provide $A1.4 billion of funding to help construct four large solar energy plants totalling 1000MW.

“The world’s energy demand is set to grow by 45% by 2030,” Ferguson said. “At the same time, we have set ambitious targets to reduce CO2 emissions. “If we are to meet both our energy needs and our desire to slow down climate change, we need a complete transformation of energy technology as we know it.”

The government will select two technologies under the banner of solar PV and two under the banner of solar thermal as part of the programme.

The sites will feed into the national grid, and could be located adjacent to existing power utilities, most of which in Australia are coal fired.

That means that the facilities are likely to be installed along the eastern seaboard, and not in remote desert locations, or in the north-west of the country where some aspiring developers such as Ausra have suggested large scale thermal plants could provide power to a new regional grid that could serve remote mining operations.

Pleasant surprise

Bob Matthews, CEO of Ausra Australia – the local subsidiary of a company that moved away from its Sydney roots in 2006 to California because of a lack of local government support – said he was surprised by the announcement.

“It is extremely exciting. Australia will be a solar superpower when these plans are implemented.” Ausra has a small solar thermal power plant attached to the Liddell coal-fired power station in New South Wales, and is in discussions with other coal-fired generators to establish similar but larger facilities.

On May 24 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd visited the facilities, which the company says are the world’s first solar augmented coal-fired power station, to talk up the solar programme.
These and other solar energy groups said they needed to study the details of the programme before commenting in detail on the implications for their business plans and projects.

However, it is likely to mean a complete redrafting of proposals that had been put together for funding under the government’s Renewable Energy Development Programme, which was to provide $A435 million to support several mid-size demonstration projects selected from solar, ocean, geothermal and biomass technologies.

However, $A135 million of those funds would be transferred to the Solar Flagships programme, with the remaining $A300 million reserved for other technologies. Solar applicants are now likely to have to significantly upscale those proposals to qualify for funding under the new programme.

Big ambitions

Although details have not been released, it is thought that both Ausra and other solar energy players have teamed up with a variety of partners – both existing generators and other investors – to pursue various solar energy projects under the REDP scheme.

Another likely candidate for the Solar Flagships programme would be engineering firm Worley Parsons, which early last year said there was the capacity to build 32 large-scale solar thermal power installations in Australia, and launched a study into the construction of one 250MW solar thermal plant with the assistance of nine industry partners, including mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto.

In an announcement last August, Worley Parsons said the proposed plant would have approximately 618,000 mirrors, making up some 288km of troughs on about 640ha of land – or about 2.5km by 2.5km. It said such a plant would supply enough electricity to power over 300,000 homes.

Worley Parson’s head of EcoNomics[correct], Peter Meurs, said the firm was delighted by the government’s funding initiatives. “This will be a key milestone in the development of solar power in Australia, which is uniquely placed to sustain a solar energy industry. Our vision continues to be for Australia to become a world leader in solar thermal energy, which is an essential part in the achievement of Australia’s renewable energy targets.”