Qld generator may replace Collinsville coal with solar PV

The closed Collinsville coal fired generator in north Queensland

The owners of the Collinsville coal-fired power station in northern Queensland are considering closing the facility permanently and replacing it with a large-scale solar array.

Ratch Australia, which inherited the ageing power station – along with several wind farms – as part of its purchase of Transfield Infrastructure in 2011, has hired Queensland-based firm Ingenero to advise on the feasibility of a solar PV farm, possibly up to 50MW, to be sited at Collinsville.

If it goes ahead, that would make it the biggest solar installation in the country, and a hugely symbolic first instance where a coal-fired power station in Australia has been replaced by solar – although there is a strong community push to do the same at Port August in South Australia. Many coal plants in Australia have been closed or mothballed because of the economic impact of reduced demand, and the growing impact of renewable energy generation, particularly rooftop solar.

However, Anil Nangia, the head of business development at Ratch Australia, said a solar PV farm was one of “many options” – both renewable and fossil fuel (and, presumably, hybrid options) – that are being considered to replace the ageing power station.

He would not go into further details, but said an announcement would be made within two weeks.

Second proposal for Collinsville

The closed Collinsville coal fired generator in north Queensland
Collinsville coal plant could be replaced with solar PV

It is not the first time there has been a proposal to transform the heavy polluting, 180MW Collinsville power station to solar. The previous owners in 2009 proposed a solar thermal plant using technology owned by Novatec Solar, a German company majority-owned by Transfield Services, which retains a small stake in Ratch Australia.

Solar thermal technologies use the sun’s energy to create steam and drive a turbine.

That proposal made the shortlist of the ill-fated Solar Flagships program, but fell out of contention when it was discovered that little of the existing infrastructure could be used with that new technology.

Still, the fact that a coal-fired power plant exists there offers a ready-made grid connection and land that could be used for other technologies, and Nangia said that the cost of solar PV had fallen so far it was now competing with wind energy on costs in Australia.

Nangia said solar PV could now be built in Australia for between 12c and 15c/kWh. That is more expensive than wind (8.5c/kWh to 12c/kWh), but because solar PV plants produce during the day, their output has a higher value.

“If you can find a site with cheap connection costs and low land costs, solar PV becomes viable, and it can be competitive with wind,” said Nangia, whose company also owns the Windy Hill and Starfish wind farms, and is looking to develop wind projects in the Atherton Tablelands in north Queensland, and near Collector in New South Wales, as part of a planned $1 billion investment program in energy facilities in Australia.

“Ratch has a number of wind sites that we are developing – but we think solar can be very competitive,” Nangia said.

Ratch Australia has signed a MOU with Ingenero to look at a pipeline of projects in the 5MW, 10MW to 20MW range. “We think that is a good size,” Nangia said.

Any such development will, of course, require a power purchase agreement with a local utility. And as any solar or wind developer can attest, these are proving hard to obtain in the current market, and with lingering uncertainty about the fate of the Renewable Energy Target.

“We do need a PPA, yes, definitely,” Nangia said. “In the current market it is not easy. Everyone talking about amount of RECs (renewable energy certificates) required (by the utilities) and how it will go up quite substantially. So we are hoping that the energy retailers will have appetite for RECs in the near future.”

Ingenero CEO Steve McRae said the partnership with Ratch Australia was an enormous opportunity for the company.

“This partnership will see development of grid-connected, commercial-scale solar and off-grid installations within Australia and internationally,” he said.

Ratch Australia’s majority owner, Thailand’s Ratchaburi Electricity, owns solar PV installations in Thailand. Nangia said lower labour costs meant that the cost of solar PV arrays was around 20-30 per cent cheaper in Thailand than in Australia.

Comments

11 responses to “Qld generator may replace Collinsville coal with solar PV”

  1. Brad Avatar

    Great news.
    The issue of getting a Power purchase agreement remains a real barrier to otherwise economically viable large scale renewable power plants.

    If the Government isn’t developing a policy, like a large-scale feed-in tarrif to deal with this market failure, they probably should be!

  2. adam Avatar
    adam

    Quote “Nangia said solar PV could now be built in Australia for between 12c and 15c/kWh. That is more expensive than wind (8.5c/kWh to 12c/kWh), but because solar PV plants produce during the day, their output has a higher value.”

    How do you represent that value in a PPA which is fixed rate?

    1. Sean Avatar
      Sean

      simple. you know that sun tends to only rise and set at certain times of the day 🙂

  3. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    I hope Ingenero is not constrained by the attitude of “We do need a PPA”. Take advantage of the 5min dispatch window of the NEM and trade on a merchant basis.

    1. Ronald Brak Avatar

      Utiity solar faces the problem of expanding rooftop solar pushing down electricity prices during the day. Of course all utility scale generation faces this problem, but it’s particularly acute for utility solar since it produces electricity at the same time as point of use solar. I’m guessing they would see going ahead without a PPA as simply too risky.

      1. Warwick Avatar
        Warwick

        If you think prices in Queensland are “pushed down during the day by solar” have a quick look at 2013 spot prices in Queensland… aemo.com.au

        1. Ronald Brak Avatar

          Warick, do you think that if I built a coal plant and started supplying up to 500 megawatts of electricity for free on sunny days it wouldn’t push down the wholesale price of electricity? If you don’t think this, then wouldn’t 500 megawatts of rooftop solar also push down prices?

          Let’s all close our eyes and imagine that everyone has a large rooftop solar system and the demand for utility generated electricity drops down to zero on sunny days. Since demand is zero, wouldn’t the wholesale price of electricity also have to be zero? And if the price is zero in this situation, then wouldn’t each step we take towards it make the wholesale price of electricity on sunny days lower than what it would otherwise be? .

          I’d be interested to hear any explantion of how Queensland’s current 500 megawatts or so of solar capacity could not result in a lowering of wholesale electricity prices.

          Here’s a link to the article next door. It explains what’s happening to demand in South Australia, which is the state with the most solar capacity:
          https://reneweconomy.wpengine.com/2013/rooftop-solar-reshapes-energy-market-in-south-australia-18272

  4. John D Avatar

    They should also consider solar thermal with molten salt heat storage and back-up molten salt heating (such as the type described in the BZE stationary energy report http://media.beyondzeroemissions.org/ZCA2020_Stationary_Energy_Report_v1.pdf) Even though it is more expensive than solar PV it could be run as azero emission peaking power generator. In particular it could provide power for the high demand part of the day when solar PV output drops off.

    1. Ronald Brak Avatar

      Or if the price of daytime electricity drops far enough it could be worthwhile to build solar thermal molten salt storage without the solar part.

  5. Sokkha Dunstan Avatar

    Solar energy can be used with CSIRO-developed technology to provide on-demand despatchable power. For example –
    “This project combines the experience of the CSIRO solar steam reforming team with GE’s combined cycle technology to deliver an efficient and reliable path to solar thermal electricity generation.” http://goo.gl/dEvZP
    Solar thermal energy can also be used to gasify biomass or coal, and to reform biogas (CH4 + CO2) to synthesis gas (2H2 + 2CO).

  6. Ron Horgan Avatar
    Ron Horgan

    Great to see solar replace obsolete coal.

    Ironic that the technology and enthusiasm are coming from Thailand to develop business in slow sleepy conservative Australia!

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