Queensland plans One of the Largest Solar Thermal Plants in the World using Molten Salt Energy Storage

Cobra Energy, a subsidiary of the Spanish ACS Group, will reportedly build a 250-megawatt solar energy plant, possibly in three sites. One of the three sites will be located near Mildura in Victoria while two sites are being planned in Queensland. The project will eventually be one of the biggest solar thermal generation facilities in the world.

The company has reportedly initiated talks with the local governments of Victoria and Queensland to finalize the location based on suitability, program requirements and support from the relevant state government.

“None of the numbers we have proposed so far have worried the state people we have spoken to so far,” said Alan Atchison, Cobra Energy’s Australian chief. The Austrialian recenlty reported that other Spanish solar thermal companies such as Abengoa Solar and Acciona, as well as United States-based BrightSource Energy, might also get involved in the project.

Solar flagship

Cobra Energy has not detailed how the project would be financed, but it was reported that it would seek the help of the Australian government’s solar flagship program, a 1.5 billion Australian dollar effort for solar thermal and photovoltaic technologies.

The solar flagship program is part of the Australian government’s Clean Energy Initiative which aims to boost the country’s clean energy sources with the help of 4.5 billion Australian dollars to build about 1,000 MW of solar power generation capacity. The government included this program in its national budget announced in May 2009.

Cobra Energy said it will bring to Australia its own base load power generation technology that has been used in projects in Andalucia and Extremadura in Spain.

Base load power generation enables solar power plants to continue generating electricity seven and a half hours after the sun has set. This is possible by using excess energy stored in molten salts during the day.

“If we’re going to have real progress in reducing emissions in Australia and a reliable energy system, it’s based on base load capacity. For our solar flagships we’re actually going to test whether we can prove up base load reliable solar energy in Australia under the government program,” said Martin Ferguson, Australia’s minister of federal energy and resources, as quoted in the Australian.

Australia wants to derive 20 percent of its energy from renewable energy sources by 2020.

Australia’s solar flagship program aims to develop a combined 400 MW of power, half of which will come from solar thermal and half from photovoltaic energy sources. Solar thermal applications generate electricity by using energy to boil water whose steam drives a turbine.

The program aims to subsidize the costs of building large-scale solar plants and promote the use of energy generated from solar power plants in the country, which is currently led by the wind power industry.

Solar power generation is more expensive than wind power generation but many see great promise in Australia’s solar capacity because of the country’s abundant sunshine

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