I’m going to say it. Ready? Here it comes … Solar power is ready to replace coal-fired electricity!
OK, so we’ve been claiming this for a while, but a report released from Greenpeace and the solar industry this week leaves no doubt that solar power is able to provide electricity just as well as coal. At commercial scale. Without the greenhouse pollution.
The Global CSP Outlook 2009 Report recaps the dramatic recent growth of concentrated solar power. The report projects a future where, by mid-century, a quarter of global electricity needs can be met by solar power.
And, it’s with a technology that we have ready right now.
Concentrated solar power basically uses mirrors to reflect and concentrate the suns rays onto a point, where it becomes bloody hot (we’re talking between 500ºC and 1000ºC). That heat is then used to create steam, which spins a turbine, just like burning coal creates heat to spin a turbine. Australia’s own Liddell coal-fired electricity plant in the NSW Hunter Valley actually uses a prototype of this technology to provide steam to one of its boilers, showing just how strong the overlaps are between large-scale solar power and conventional (yet polluting) fossil fuels.
Yes, yes, yes, I know… the sun doesn’t always shine. They’ve got that covered now.
The newest solar plants save up excess heat during the day and, when the sun is not beating down, that excess heat is used to power the plant. In Spain, several concentrated solar power plants have up to 8 hours of storage. So, in winter they can operate at full capacity until well after midnight and, at this time of year, be producing electricity around the clock. Spain’s Andasol 1 solar thermal power station is an example.
In Europe, there are some impressive plans for using concentrated solar power generated in North Africa. This power would not only provide electricity to African countries, but integrate with the European electricity network so other renewable energy sources in Mediterranean Europe are backed up with solar power. High-voltage direct current transmission lines mean that electricity will be able to be transported hundreds of kilometres, and the efficiency losses will be very low.
While Australia might not have the same geopolitical plans to pump solar energy directly out to the Asia-Pacific region, from a technical point of view this could certainly be achieved. A 30km by 30km square in the middle of the desert receives enough solar energy to cover Australia’s electricity needs and you’d struggle to find a better resource than ours.
The report says that our region could build 9000 Megawatts of concentrated solar power over the next 10 years, which is enough to sustain a workforce of about 10,000 people and provide enough emission-free electricity to meet the government’s renewable energy target alone. We were reflecting a couple of weeks ago about the government finally putting serious money into solar, and planning to build 1000 Megawatts of solar power. Knowing that we could actually achieve nine times this amount certainly puts it into some perspective.
9000 Megawatts is also four and a half times the amount of concentrated solar power included in our Energy [R]evolution scenario, showing just how prepared this technology is to ramp up and start doing what we desperately need it to do: replace greenhouse-polluting fossil fuels like coal.
The Energy [R]evolution suddenly looks a lot closer.
Julien will be speaking at the Australian Museum in Sydney on 6 June. See full details or RSVP on Facebook.
