“$600 million does sound like a lot. It is a lot,” Wood says. “But what happens with the economics of concentrated solar thermal and solar PV are similar. Their costs are all up front. You can get lower capital costs from gas generators, but then you spend $1.2 billion for the cost of gas over the next 30 years.
“The levellised cost of energy for gas is around $150/MWh.Our plant will deliver new generation to thelocal electricity market at a lower cost than current power plants. This will ensure local mining and smelting operations can access reliable low-cost energy that also reduces their emissions – a key focus for resources companies.”
Simon Corbell, the former ACT climate and energy minister and now a senior advisor with Energy Estate, says the construction of the largest hybrid renewable energy project would be of enormous value, not just to the customers it will serve, but also as an example to others of what can be achieved.
“It can beintegrated to deliver a firm dispatchable load for the stand-alone micro grid in Mt Isa, a step up from the plants we have seen deployed to date ….. and it will show its potential to dispatch that power back into the NEM (National Electricity Market).
Solar thermal technology has been showing promise for years, but despite some deployments in the US, Spain, northern Africa, the Middle East and Chile, they have yet to be deployed at scale in Australia.
The US company SolarReserve was well advancedon a project to build a massive solar tower power plant with storage near Port Augusta, but despite signing a long term contract with the South Australia government itfailed to secure finance after technology problemsemerged at its Ivanpah plant in Nevada.
Wood says the Mt Isa market may be easier to crack than the main grid, because the only competition comes from much more expensive gas, which has to be piped thousands of kilometres.
“CSP has a history of false starts,” Wood says. “At its core, it tracks back to technology. We’ve had 2.5 years operating our grid connected pilot plant, and we have been refining the technology and making sure the product works. It’s not without risks, and certainly some of the current and former competitors have significant issues in those areas.”
The core ofVast Solar’s technologyis using liquid sodium as its heat transfer fluid, and a modular system that creates what will be 8MW units comprised of heliostats (mirrors) that reflect sunlight to a receiver on top of a tower, where the fluid is heated (and then stored).
The Mt Isa project would see the towers grow from 27m high to 50m, slightly bigger heliostats, and bigger modules.
Before the project goes ahead, it will need to secure a power purchase agreement with customers to help it get finance, and those customers may include thosecurrently served by the Mica Creek power station. And it will also approach the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (should it still exist), the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and the North Australia Infrastructure Facility.
All going well, financial close could be reached in mid 2021, and generation beginning in 2023 after about two years of construction.
It already has the support of the local mayor Danielle Slade.
Giles Parkinson