SA Solar 150MW – No Go / SA Solar 150MW – No Go
By Paul Raftery
South Australia
has been a place of much activity in seeking energy solutions since the
black-outs of summer 2016. This is
something that Australians will not tolerate – No Air-Con when we want it!
In South
Australia, there have been many attempted answers to supply local
environmentally friendly power and of course there has been the “Big Battery.”
– Thanks to Mr Musk.
In the Aurora
project what was proposed was a 150MW solar unit which used a newer technology
- - harnessing the sun’s energy using a combination of lenses and reflectors to
concentrate the energy to heat molten salt to produce steam to drive a turbine.
The technology uses molten salt as a storage medium which allows power to be
despatched 24/4. The proposed technology
was to be provided by SolarReserve which operates a plant like that proposed in
Nevada (see https://www.solarreserve.com/en/)
The project was
to be located some 310 km from Adelaide at the city of Port Augusta and it
would in part replace the Northern Power Station (2 * 260 MW coal fired steam
turbines) closed in 2016 with the loss
of 165 jobs. The consequences of this have been a considerable increase in the
price of power in South Australia. (see Griffiths, Luke, “$650m solar project
axed”, The Australian, 6-7 April,
2019, p. 31) (or https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/650m-sa-renewable-project-brokered-by-jay-)weatherill-canned/news-story/b678787002de642f055d045880f4c632)
The construction
price touted for the 150MW unit was AUD 650m. It was to create 650 jobs during
construction and 50 during its operational phase.
In September
2018 SolarReserve announced its proposal which would see the most of the
components made locally. (See https://www.solarreserve.com/en/newsroom
: SolarReserve%20Teams%20with%20Heliostat%20SA%20to%20Create%20South%20Australian%20Jobs.pdf
The Federal
Government committed AUD 110m of funding to the project in August, 2017.
The reality is
the technology is too expensive. As the ABC notes the Crescent Dunes (Nevada)
plant was “… aided by a concessional loan of $US737 million ($1,040 million)
from the US Department of Energy. Despite that subsidy, it was contracted to
supply electricity to Nevada at $190 a megawatt hour. Not cheap.” (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-05/port-augusta-becomes-australian-renewable-energy-hub/10338812).
The South
Australia’s plants proposed numbers have not been disclosed, but if speculation
is correct that the production cost is $78 a megawatt hour, and a capital cost
of $650m, we can guess why the market would not fund it.
Tabatinga (www.tabatingasg.com) is currently working
on solar projects in Argentina and Colombia. We tell our clients we need to
work with best proven technology. We mean by this we need purchase working
technology which we know the capital and operating cost of we know what it will
cost to buy and run. We need ensure that they are realistic in what they seek
as we are generally in a tender situation or at minimum need finance.
This outcome is
sad for all concerned as the expectations of new jobs created short and long
term has gone.
Paul Raftery
End.
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