CSP World

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) has said to Alinta that it will not fund its requested feasibility study for a Concentrated Solar Power project.

The idea behind this project was to replace, either completely or in part, two aging coal-fired power plants owned by Alinta in Port Augusta, Australia, with concentrated solar thermal power plants.

Julianna Klose, head of Communication of Alinta said the company was disappointed with the funding rejection, “given the identified potential for solar energy development at site, Alinta Energy is disappointed by this outcome but acknowledges the significant challenges to full-scale commercialization”. The project has received a wide community support, especially from the Repower Port Augusta group. "We did feel we put forward a very strong proposal that was based not only on the strong potential for solar resource in that region but also the enormous amount of community and statewide support," Klose said, "we will revisit potential opportunities at Port Augusta as technologies continue to mature and the policy environment becomes more certain.”

The plan to switch from coal to solar thermal has achieved a strong support from community. Repower Port Augusta carried out a campaign where 4053 residents of Port Augusta voted in support to this plan.

This is the second CSP project that ARENA, which has not disclosed the rationale behind the rejection, refuses in a short period, after the withdrawal of the funds for the Whyalla Solar Oasis plant.

Australia, despite being one of the countries with major DNI resource and being involved in the research and development of a vast number of CSP projects, has failed to commercially deploy the technology and take advantage to develop a strong domestic industry. Only a bunch of small to medium scale projects are operational or on track while the planned large-scale projects have failed to meet financial closure, maybe due to a cumbersome grants funding process.

The largest project on track is the Kogan Creek Fresnel plant to add about 44 MW to a coal-fired plant, expected to be complete later this year. The rest are small demonstration plants as the Liddell Fresnel solar booster or the Lake Cargelligo towers.