The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has just announced a push to research how concentrated sunlight, or Concentrated Solar Thermal, could generate affordable, reliable, renewable energy with built-in storage for Australia’s national grids.
This research will be conducted by seeking industry information on the project to better understand what is required according to a press release.
This comes after the Governments offer to help make $100 million available for the Port Augusta concentrated solar thermal (CST) project via an equity investment.
The commercialization of Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST)
Despite the obvious benefits of such technology ARENA CEO Ivor Frischknecht believes that more research should be done as well as providing more funding before the energy source can be commercialized.
“The benefits of CST will become increasingly important as more renewables enter our grid, particularly in regions like South Australia that already have high levels of wind and solar PV generation,”
“Solar thermal plants operate more like traditional fossil fuel power plants than wind turbines or solar PV farms. They can contribute to network stability and reliability through built-in storage and inertia provided by a conventional turbine.” Mr Frischknecht said.
This technology is said to be a valuable resource in addition to solar and wind power to help create a clean future however it is less cost competitive compared to other new-build power generation.
With such research and successes being seen after similar investigation into PV solar it is hoped this concentrated effort on CST will yield similarly positive results.
“ARENA works across the innovation chain to building a vital bridge between commercial development and uptake. These fresh efforts will seek to map out and support a pathway for CST to achieve commercial viability in Australia,” Mr Frischknecht said.
“Our large-scale solar PV competitive round proved that the cost of renewable energy technologies can be reduced significantly with targeted efforts.”
What can be done to help
ARENA as part of this initiative is requesting information from prospective industry participants on the costs and benefits of CST.
Those who should present this information may include project proponents, debt and equity investors, original equipment manufacturers, off-takers and government entities.
Responses are due by the 31st of July 2017 with written submissions that cover all types of CST.
