Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard yesterday announced funding to help build a major solar energy system at the 750 megawatt Kogan Creek coal-fired power station near Chinchilla in Queensland.
Back in 2009 we reported on an announcement from Queensland Premier Anna Bligh in regard to a project involving installing a solar thermal addition to Kogan Creek to increase the station’s overall efficiency and generate clean electricity – and those plans look set to finally come to fruition.
The Australian Government has committed $34.9 million to help build the $104.7 million Kogan Creek Solar Boost project, which will create up to 120 jobs when construction commences later this year. The solar farm is expected to be powering Queensland homes and businesses by 2013.
Prime Minister Gillard says the integration of Australian-developed solar thermal technology at the power station will avoid 35,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere every year and generate an extra 44,000 megawatt hours of electricity annually.
AREVA Solar has been awarded the contract for the project, which will use Australian-pioneered Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector (CLFR) superheated solar steam technology to boost the power station’s steam generation system, supplementing the conventional coal-fired steam generation process.
A Compact Linear Fresnel Reflector system consists of segments of mirror that focus sunlight at around 30 times its normal intensity onto an absorber. The absorber heats a fluid inside, which is then piped through a heat exchanger to power a steam turbine.
The Kogan Creek initiative represents the largest deployment of AREVA’s solar thermal technology in the world.
“The application of AREVA Solar’s Australian-pioneered technology to this utility-scale project affirms its far-reaching potential to provide cost-effective, turnkey solutions,” said AREVA Solar CEO Bill Gallo
AREVA is a French public multinational, headquartered in Mountain View, California. The company plans to manufacture the solar hardware locally.
The project is being funded under the Australian Government’s $5 billion Clean Energy Initiative.
