light on the solar front

http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Light-on-the-solar-front-pd20091117-XV586?OpenDocument&src=ea&ir=3

POWERLINE
by Keith Orchison

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Posted 20 NOV 2009 6:25 AM

Light on the solar front
I saw a ray of light on the solar front in the past week, raising a prospect that a combination of Queensland resources and federal government money could deliver a very interesting new power direction.

I had a shot at Kevin Rudd earlier this year for over-spinning on solar and he was at it again recently, boasting that Australia, with the help of a big government subsidy, is going to “invest in solar generating capacity that will be three times larger than the world’s current largest project.”

He really should run that claim past his mate, Bill Clinton. The Clinton Foundation is reported by the Indian media as working with the government of Gujarat state on a project that could deliver 5,000 MW of solar energy – versus 1,000 MW for Rudd’s plan – in the desert bordering Pakistan, an area that gets more than 300 days of sunshine a year. Gujarat energy minister Saurabh Patel says the 40-plant development will be “the world’s biggest solar energy hub.” Several other international projects are also larger than Rudd’s goal.

Central Queensland, however, has major reserves of coal seam methane along with a Gujurat-type sunshine supply – and speakers at the Powering Australia forum I chaired in Brisbane last week have proposed that the two resources could be united, a solar thermal plant with an open-cycle, peaking gas plant, to deliver low-emission baseload supply.

Now before the Prime Minister’s inner spinner sees this as an 'aha' moment, I need to say one word to him: Kuraymat. Not some term of abuse dredged from my African past, but the name of a 150 MW project on the banks of the Nile, 95 kilometres south of Cairo, that is seen as a role model. The project combines 80 MW of solar thermal capacity with 70 MW of gas plant, costing an estimated 150 million euros to build and due to be completed in 2010. If it works, it may be doubled.

In central Queensland, this combination could offer the best of both worlds: linking zero-emission and low-emission technologies to deliver electricity at a cost that, while not competitive with conventional coal power, would be in the right decarbonisation ballpark when a front-end development subsidy plus the renewable energy scheme are made available – still more so in an area where generation can be sited close to gas pipelines and high voltage transmission lines.

ERM Power chairman Trevor St Baker told the Powering Australia forum that the concept could be applied to the third Braemar power station planned for the area south and west of Dalby. The company has already built two Braemar plants, with a combined capacity of 900 MW, all open-cycle. It is now working on plans for Braemar 3, another 450 MW.

Another speaker, Bertram Ehman, the new regional head of Siemens Energy, suppliers of the Braemar turbines, pointed to the Egyptian development, in which the company is also involved, as an indicator of what can be done.

An important part of the Queensland project would be advancement in storage technology using molten salt (see my Time for solar to shine post) to increase the solar system’s efficiency – and, of course, access to some of the $1.6 billion that the Rudd government is offering to drive solar generation investment in Australia.

What no doubt excites a giant engineering firm like Siemens is the prospect of pursuing the hybrid option around the world, including a number of regions with rather more consumption than the eastern seaboard of Australia. Wikipedia currently claims, citing David Mills of Ausra, that, while only 600 MW of solar thermal power is up and running today, with another 400 MW under construction, there are 14,000 MW of “serious” CSP projects being planned. A commercially viable gas/solar option would take that capacity a lot higher.

Unwittingly, have blown steam this year on his solar dreams, apparently unaware of the several projects around the world that would overshadow them, Rudd may have an opportunity to support a concept that genuinely could attract global interest.