Solar power in Australia

White Cliffs Solar Power Station, New South Wales

Solar power in Australia is a relatively recent phenomenon. Currently, it has over 4,100 megawatts (MW) of installed photovoltaic (PV) solar power (March 2015),^[1] and 760 MW of PV was installed in the preceding 12 months. At a capacity factor of 14 percent, this would contribute 1.1 percent of Australia's electrical energy. The amount of installed PV capacity in Australia has increased 10-fold between 2009 and 2011. Feed-in tariffs and mandatory renewable energy targets designed to assist renewable energy commercialisation in Australia have largely been responsible for the rapid increase.

In South Australia, Premier Mike Rann introduced a solar feed in tariff for households and an educational program that involved installing photovoltaics on the roofs of major public buildings such as the Adelaide Airport, State Parliament, Museum, Art Gallery and several hundred public schools.^[2] In 2008 Premier Rann announced funding for $8 million worth of solar panels on the roof of the new Goyder Pavilion at the Royal Adelaide Showgrounds, the largest roof top solar installation in Australia, qualifying it for official "power station" status.^[3] South Australia has the highest per capita take up of household solar power in Australia.

The first commercial-scale PV power plant was opened in 2011, the Uterne Solar Power Station, a 1 MW capacity grid-connected solar photovoltaic system located 5 km south of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.^[4] The second opened in 2012 at Greenough River Solar Farm with a capacity of 10 MW.^[5] The price of photovoltaics has been decreasing, and in January 2013, was less than half the cost of using grid electricity in Australia.^[6]

The country has been criticised for producing very little of its energy from solar power, despite its vast resources, extensive sunshine and thus high potential.^{[7][8][9][10]}

Potential

Solar potential in Australia

The combination of Australia's dry climate and latitude give it a high benefits and potential for solar energy production. Most of the Australian continent receives in excess of 4 kWh per square metre per day of insolation during winter months, with a region in the north exceeding 6 kWh/day.

Australia's insolation greatly exceeds the average values in Europe, Russia, and most of North America. Comparable levels are found in desert areas of northern and southern Africa, south western United States and adjacent area of Mexico, and regions on the Pacific coast of South America. However, the areas of highest insolation are distant to the country's population centres.

With an installed photovoltaic capacity of 3,300 megawatts by the end of 2013, Australia ranks among the world's top ten solar countries.

There is considerable academic and commercial interest in a new form of Concentrated Solar Power, called STEM, for off-grid applications to produce 24-hour industrial scale power for remote communities and mining sites. STEM uses fluidized silica sand as a thermal storage and heat transfer medium for CSP systems. It has been developed by Italy's Magaldi Industries. The first commercial application of STEM will take place in Sicily in late 2015.^[11]

Incentives

Source: Australian PV Institute (reported year-end capacity in GW, rounded)[12]

Rebates

The Australian Government provided a rebate program that offered up to A$8,000 rebates for installing solar panels on homes and community use buildings (other than schools), through the Solar Homes and Communities Plan.^[13] However, on 8 June 2009, this program was phased out, to be replaced by the Solar Credits Program, where an installation of a solar system would receive 5 times as many Renewable Energy Certificates for the first 1.5 kilowatts of capacity under the Renewable Energy Target (see below)^[14]

Schools were eligible to apply for grants of up to A$50,000 to install 2 kW solar panels and other measures through the National Solar Schools Program beginning 1 July 2008, which replaced the Green Vouchers for Schools program.^[15] Applications for the program ended 21 November 2012. A total of 2,870 schools have installed solar panels.^[16] The output of each array can be viewed, and compared with that of up to four other schools.^[17]

Feed-in tariffs

Feed in tariffs were introduced by a number of states to increase the amount of solar PV power generated. They can be classified by a number of factors including the price paid, whether it is on a net or gross export basis, the length of time payments are guaranteed, the maximum size of installation allowed and the type of customer allowed to participate. Many Australian state feed-in tariffs were net export tariffs, whereas conservation groups argued for gross feed-in tariffs. In March 2009, the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) started a solar gross feed-in tariff. For systems up to 10 kW the payment was 50.05 cents per kWh. For systems from 10 kW to 30 kW the payment was 40.04 cents per kWh. The payment was revised downward once before an overall capacity cap was reached and the scheme closed. Payments are made quarterly based on energy generated and the payment rate is guaranteed for 20 years.^[18][19] In Germany, a guaranteed PV tariff means that Germany now has the highest PV capacity per capita – at 10 W for every person in Germany compared to Australia at 2.6 W per capita.^[20]

Mandatory renewable energy target

The Federal Government MRET will ensure renewable energy obtains a 20% share of electricity supply in Australia by 2020. The MRET will increase from 9,500 gigawatt-hours to 45,000 gigawatt-hours by 2020. The scheme lasts until 2030.^[21]

The MRET requires wholesale purchasers of electricity (such as electricity retailers or industrial operations) to purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), created through the generation of electricity from renewable sources. These sources include Wind, Hydro, Landfill Gas and Geothermal, as well as Solar PV and Solar Thermal, providing a stimulus and additional revenue for these technologies.

Subsidy funding

The Solar Flagships program sets aside $1.6 billion for solar power over a period of six years.^[22] The government funding is for 4 new solar plants that produce coal plant scale power (in total up to 1000 MW - coal plants typically produce 500 to 2,000 MW). This subsidy would need additional funding from the plant builders and/or operators. As a comparison Abengoa Solar, a company currently constructing solar thermal plants, put the cost of a 300 MW plant at 1.2 billion euros in 2007. In 2009, the Arizona state government announced a 200 MW plant for 1 billion US dollars.^[23][24]

Projects

Status by state

The list of solar power projects below is not complete as there are many more sites that have solar power or hybrid solar/wind systems to generate their own power needs. Projects with a power rating less than 30 kW are not listed.

Victoria

The 100 MW PV Mildura Solar Concentrator Power Station, formerly expected to be completed in 2017, is now cancelled.^[107] It was expected to be the biggest and most efficient solar photovoltaic power station in the world. The power station was expected to concentrate the sun by 500 times onto the solar cells for ultra high power output. The Victorian power station would have generated electricity directly from the sun to meet the annual needs of over 45,000 homes with on-going zero greenhouse gas emissions.^[108]

Western Australia

Western Australia now (Oct 2012) has one of the largest solar power farms in Australia, at Walkaway, 70 km SE of Geraldton. The Greenough River Solar farm was opened in October 2012. The 10MW field has 150,000 solar panels.

Northern Territory

There are 30 solar concentrator dishes at three locations in the Northern Territory: Hermannsburg, Yuendumu and Lajamanu. Solar Systems and the Federal government were involved in the projects.

The solar concentrator dish power stations together generate 720 kW and 1,555,000 kWh per year, representing a saving of 420,000 litres of diesel and 1,550 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.^[109]

The solar power stations at these three remote indigenous communities in Australia's Northern Territory are constructed using Solar Systems' CS500 concentrator dish systems. The project cost A$7M, offset by a grant from the Australian and Northern Territory Governments under their Renewable Remote Power Generation Program.^[110]

The project won a prestigious Engineering Excellence award in 2005.^[110]

The Federal Government has funded over 120 innovative small-scale standalone solar systems in remote indigenous communities, designed by Bushlight, incorporating sophisticated demand side management systems with user-friendly interfaces.

Australian Capital Territory

A new 20 MWp solar power plant has been built on 50 hectares of land in Royalla, a rural part of the Australian Capital Territory south of Canberra. It is powered by 83,000 solar panels, and can power for 4,400 homes. It was officially opened on 3 September 2014. It is the first solar plant facility in the Australian capital, and at the time of building the largest such plant in Australia. The facility was built by a Spanish company, Fotowatio Renewable Ventures (FRV).^[32][111]

Solar cities program

Solar Cities is a demonstration programme designed to promote solar power, smart meters, and energy conservation in urban locations throughout Australia.^[112] One such location is Townsville, Queensland.^[113][114]

Renewable Energy Master Plan 2030

The Council of Sydney is attempting to make the city run 100% on renewable energy by 2030. This plan was announced earlier in 2014 with the blueprints made public on their website.^[115] This ambitious plan was recently awarded the 2014 Eurosolar prize in the category of "Towns/municipalities, council districts and public utilities".^[116]

See also

• Andrew Blakers
• Building-integrated photovoltaics
• Centre for Appropriate Technology (Australia)
• List of countries by electricity production from renewable sources
• Martin Green
• Photovoltaic and renewable energy engineering in Australia

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Solar power in Australia.

• Live Solar PV map of Australia
• A daily solar map of Australia from Bureau of Meteorology
• The Desert Knowledge Australia Solar Centre
• Brumby planning to plug Victoria into the sun. The Age. 17 June 2008.

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