Port Augusta 300MW solar + wind project seeks community approval

The company behind a proposal to build a 300MW hybrid wind and solar plant near Port Augusta in South Australia will present its plans to the local community next week, via two consultation sessions, ahead of plans to apply for a planning permit by the middle of the year.

DP Energy Australia first publicly floated plans to build the integrated Renewable Energy Park in September 2014, on a 5,400 hectare site 8km south-east of Port Augusta – a part of Australia renowned for its rich solar and wind resources.

The public consultation sessions, to be held in Port Augusta on Tuesday and Wednesday next week, are expected to help inform the development application and address any community concerns about the project, which would have 59 wind turbines and up to 1.6 million solar PV modules.

The proposal is competing with a rival push for a large scale solar tower project with storage, although Alinta – which owns the two brown coal generators in the town – argues that that technology is still too expensive.

At this stage, the DP Energy plan is for the plant to be split 50/50 between wind and solar, with around 150MW of each, to produce around 770GWh of energy a year; enough to power about 153,000 average South Australian homes.

DP Energy Australia director David Blake – who has been working on the idea for the solar-wind project for five years, with Port Augusta in mind – says he has been engaging with key stakeholders and community groups throughout the early planning stages and has had very little negative feedback, and a lot of positive.

“We expect to have all our consent by mid-2016,” Blake told RenewEconomy in an interview on Friday, “and then there’s a very good chance we can get building” straight after that, he added.

Between now and then, however, the company will also have to find funding for the project.

Blake says the funding issue is more likely a matter of when, and not if, but concedes the continued uncertainty surrounding the renewable energy target and other clean energy policies has added a degree of difficulty to the process.

“Australia will get there (on renewables),” Blake said. “Whether it will go willingly, or be dragged kicking and screaming… the fundamentals say that it has to.”

“We think that conditions will improve,” he added – “we’re getting indications along those lines.”

And while the current political stand-off over the final RET numbers looks like it might never be resolved, Blake says the message the industry is getting is that, with two numbers to choose from, we are now not that far from a decision – and even that has provided enough certainty for things to get going again.

Meanwhile, Blake says, DP Energy is in discussions with ARENA and with banks, pension funds, and any other group that might be interested in providing debt for the project.

“We’ve had to take a fairly long view,” he told RE by telephone. “But political uncertainty not withstanding, we are confident we can get backing.”

Blake says that the integrated nature of Port Augusta Renewable Energy Park mean it has some “pointed differences” that should make it easier to sell.

“The generation profile that we’ve got (at the Port Augusta site) is quite different,” he said. “Because the two resources are offset, we can achieve a spectacularly good match to the demand profile.

Blake says the the wind pattern at the site is strongly diurnal, with a late afternoon peak caused by the temperature difference between the ocean and the desert.

“In contrast to most of the mid-north wind farms, this project, on average generates most of its energy when demand is greatest, during the day and into the early evening, and also in summer,” he said.

“This reduces the need for expensive peaking power and power imported from interstate over interconnectors, which tend to be stressed at peak times.

“And we can connect more capacity to the grid and use control systems to account for the rare times when we do over generate.”

Historically, renewable energy has proven very popular in Port Augusta, with as-yet unrealised plans to replace the town’s ageing coal plants with solar thermal generation winning overwhelming community support.

But as the recent case with the Uriarra solar farm in Canberra illustrated, community consultation remains all important in the development of large-scale renewable energy projects in Australia.

“We are very keen to ensure that we are accessible to everyone, that we can answer their questions and provide them with as much information about the project as possible.”

They community consultation sessions will be held at the Port Augusta Institute Theatre on Tuesday, May 5 from 2pm to 8pm and Wednesday, May 6 from 8am to 11am.