Australia’s largest concentrated solar power system was officially opened yesterday by Resource and Energy Minister Nicholas Kotsiras with executives from the plants developer, Silex Solar.
The 1.5MW Mildura Solar Demonstration Facility consists of 40 individual dishes – each dish having 100 mirrors installed on it. Currently, the power plant produces enough electricity to power 500 homes and reduces CO2 emissions by 4200 tonnes each year.
Silex Systems chief executive Michael Goldsworthy said, “As a country highly dependent on coal to supply our energy needs, solar can provide clean energy security for Australia into the future, provide secure, long-term green jobs and reduce our carbon emissions.”
Mr Goldsworthy said that the system currently has a 43% cell efficiency (double that of today’s best solar silicon cells!) which he hopes can be upped to 50 – 60 per cent with further research.
The long term goal is to increase the plant to 100MW’s and power 40 000 homes. This will take additional funding of $110 million in government grants. The project has already received at $15 million grant package from the Victorian State Government with additional funds coming from the Federal Government as well. If the plant was to be increased to 100MW’s, it would then be the 3rd largest CPV facility in the world.
This goal is not too far-fetched with funding of $35 million already pledged through the Government’s Energy Technology Innovation Strategy Fund (ETIS). A further $65 million has also been pledged by the Federal Government’s Low Emissions Technology Demonstration Fund – which now falls under the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA). Construction is expected to commence in late 2014 with planning already in progress.
“We are very excited about the commercial prospects for this technology, which will potentially provide very low cost electricity from large utility-scale solar power station projects planned for deployment around the world,” Goldsworthy said.
He also revealed that Queensland can hopefully expect a 10 – 50MW plant to take advantage of our ‘Sunshine State.’