SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia plans to build the world's largest solar power station with an output of 1000 megawatts in a A$1.4 billion (US$1.05 billion) investment, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Sunday.
The plant would have three times the generating capacity of the current biggest solar-powered electricity plant, which is in California, Rudd said during a tour of a power station.
Tender details will be announced later in the year, and successful bidders will be named in the first half of 2010. Rudd said the project was aimed at exploiting the country's ample sunshine, which he called "Australia's biggest natural resource."
It was also aimed at helping the country become a leader in renewable, clean energy, he said.
"The government plans to invest with industry in the biggest solar generation plant in the world, three times the size of the world's current biggest, which is in California," Rudd said.
"Why are we doing this? We are doing it in order to support a clean energy future for Australia, we're doing it to boost economic activity now and we're doing it also to provide jobs and much needed opportunities for business as well."
The project should eventually lead to a network of solar-powered stations across the country, Rudd said, with locations chosen to fit in with the existing electricity grid and ensure good access to sunshine.
"We don't want to be clean energy followers worldwide, we want to be clean energy leaders worldwide." Rudd said.
The A$1.4 billion dedicated to this project was part of a wider A$4.65 clean energy initiative by the government, he said.
Rudd also said Australia would become a full member of the International Renewable Energy Agency, which will have its first global meeting in June.
I like this and have always said that Namibia could derive all it's power from Solar, we have some of the best sunshine in the world..... Now the proposed Kudu gas power station for Oranjemund would have generated 800MW , the Australian project above generates 1000MW at a quarter of the setup cost.......
Amazed that some Namibian Politician has not grasped this yet.....
23_146_26
Wonder where they going to get power at night....... sorriso2
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=how-to-use-solar-energy-at-night
Good idea. And as far as I know the running costs after installation is much less than other types of power plants. Australians beating us to the line.... again.
True Mike - so much sun there in the Namib - un-tapped, and using it doesn't leave a gap in the natural world, or has any harmful by-products. Hot(1)
Michael
As well as Solar power station we also have rebates in place for solar hot water systems they are $1600 per house hold.
You can also go fully solar in your house and the rebate there is $8000 that's with the $1600 hot water system.
So if you have some money to spare !!!! in a shoe box or under the bed get it into Solar Energy stocks
So far the quickest and easiest and cost effective currently .. the solar geyser . + - 25 % off household electricity usage .. now imagine all households having them ?? major saving and load off the national power grid .... I mentioned on my one trip to gauteng recently .. saw all these new housing developments .. so many no gutters for rainwater harvesting ( water a scarcer commodity there ) .. and yes plenty of swimming pool solar panels in eveidence.. but no panels for solar geysers and they even in winter enjoy far more sunshine than in the cape ) .. they were supposed to bring in legislation to enforce fitting of solar geysers to all new housing .. ??
me got grey water recycling .. rainwater harvesting , solar geyser and CFL warm white for all side
(mood )lamps, garden lamps .. dimmable not yet but yes they coming soon ...
Stenny .. there are many varieties of solar power units .. the photovoltiac system .. sun power converted into electricity stored in batteries then converted to clean AC ,,, so at night yes theoretically with a bit of backup from normal coal or gas power the night can be taken care of ... problem photocells still not that efficient , although technology is improving in leaps and bounds ,, another system uses focused mirrors to boil water creating steam to drive turbines ... another interesting system I read on .. geothermal heat .. ie : hot water from groundsource .. they then have a closed loop system using refrigirant gas which has a lower boiling point to drive turbines .. that could also successfully be applied to the focused mirror system ... prob with all the renewable systems they are dependent on what could be irregular .. sunlight .. wind ... etc .. the answer is storage via batteries and supercapacitors .. ... and yes from each individual to look for ways to save .. watch the space on LED's .. currently horrible blue light ... but as CFL's have progressed so will they .. no loss of energy due to heat .. only closest to 99 % light output ...
Intereating discussion
Australia was the first to ban incadecent Light bulbs. We have also started....
That is for PWR sawing
All that wind and sun enrgy only works when wind and sun is available, to overcome those windless and sunless times, the power that is generated in surplus, drives water pumps and pump the water up to a Bassin. Later that water drives turbines in the valley, a long time used system, but you need hills to do that
Interesting indeed .. I have a friend who is continiously experimenting with solar heating . storage of the energy and using it for later .. . and has now moved to creating his own wind power system .. he's a tinkerer .. dyslexic but highly curious ,, who knows he might in his own way stumble upon a fantastic system . I love listening to him as he rattles away about his latest experiments his eyes glint when he does ..
Quote from: toonfandangl on May 17, 2009, 10:29:59 AM
Michael
As well as Solar power station we also have rebates in place for solar hot water systems they are $1600 per house hold.
You can also go fully solar in your house and the rebate there is $8000 that's with the $1600 hot water system.
So if you have some money to spare !!!! in a shoe box or under the bed get it into Solar Energy stocks
A retired Oranjemunder has installed a 6kVA solar, battery, inverter, wind generator system at his farm he says he has power 24/7 this is the way to go.
I assume, Mr Shonborne?
With renewable energy the world is at the front door again.
Just like the back end of the 19th century beginning of the 20th Nikola Tesla who worked for
Edison ( and was cheated by him) created AC from DC electrical generators.
Today we use electricity without a second thought of how it is produced, but in the last 20 30 years
problems have started to rear there ugly heads.
Global warming, Climate change, Green house gasses Co2 to mention a few.
The renewable energy debate is on Solar, Wind and even Wave generating electricity
In 1989 two Electrochemists Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann said they had produced
COLD FUSION a process of producing nuclear fusion which would in turn give us an abundant
source of cheap energy.
I won't go into the last twenty years of their experiments being debunked by the so called experts
who incidentally worked for the major power suppliers.
American 60 minuets revisited a sceptic of Pons and Fleischmann and he admits to there being
something to this research, in fact the DOE is spending a few dollars on the project
Unlike Nuclear reactors, that use uranium enriched fuel rods which when spent still have a dangerous
effect on all life for 20,000 years.
Cold fusion uses materials like PALLADIUM, SEA WATER and Electricity, the Israeli's have a research
center called Energetics Technologies, now I believe the Israeli's are smart cookies and would not be wasting time and money.
Solar power is still on the table, while the sun shines we have a free source of energy (that estimated for the next 5 million years)
when it stops we better not be here........................... rooster
I heard the story about the sea water... most interesting, somewhere in this forum , way back I covered a movie I had watched, I think it was called, tthe death of the electric car...... if you can find it, watch it..... the BIG 3 Yankee car manufacturers knew about this, helped develop the car and then when they realised how well the car performed, they took the cars away from people... this was back in the late 80's.... Now at least those big three are busy screwing themselves with their gas guzzlers.....
heres the imdb link for the movie: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0489037/
Power Generation is active in France with tidal movements in the Bretagne
Between St Malo and Dinar, it is more experimental.
Planned is to built another one at Mont St Michele in the Normandie.
This area has a extrem tide difference unlike the coast in Oranjemund
Here a film to see the Low tide on that coast http://www.livevideo.com/video/Georgswa/EC668000A6EB4394A7B1206ADD9D0587/cancale.aspx
There are many other cheap energy sources, kept secret by the big guns. One of them I saw in motion - my one patient, a civil engineer (his 2 sons both chemical engineers), showed me in a simple kitchen experiment, how he produced "Brown's gas" in a 2 liter bottle and using braai tongs as electrodes, from WATER!!! Yes, normal tap water, with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda to make the water more alkaline. The gas gave a wonderful flame for a few seconds. Best thing - the by-product when the gas is used, is a few drops of WATER! And, very safe - when ignited, it "implodes", in stead of "explodes".
Needs some looking in to, I would say? msn emoticon (224)
Sure thats the same we used to do as kids at home .. alkaline solution and aluminium foil .. gas resulting Hydrogen ...
Slightly different, Sandy. Same principle. The chemical structure of Brown's gas is H2O2. Hydrogen gas is H2.
Hydrogen gas will explode, Brown's gas uses energy from one Oxygen atom when removed from the molecule leaving us with water (H2O).
Thanks for the info from our resident chemistry boffin Bertie .. although it must be pretty much the same thing we used to make cos this gas would burn with a blueish flame ... a less dangerous version of hydrogen ?? but yes a viable option .. hydrogen generation at present has a high input energy cost ... there are definitely people working on making it cheaper and easier to produce , just wonder why the Browns gas has not been mentioned ??
He-he, I'm no boffin Sandy. Chemistry's just fascinating to me. I'll try to get more info from the guy who showed me Brown's gas. I must admit, he talked way above my head, but was very excited about it. He mentioned astonishing figures, can't remember exact figures, but it was something like 40-80km one would be able to drive on the energy from a single liter of water!
secret(1)
My thought about why it is not explored as a fuel source --- water is readily available to everybody. If water was to replace petrol/oil, can you imagine the billion-dollar oil industries and the governments controlling them not having monopoly anymore?
idontknow
Yes Michael the Electric car and Hybrids.
WOO HOO ! The American Ford Co has a fusion hybrid car that has covered 1445 miles
on a single tank of fuel (GAS) they averaged 81.5 MPG the tank holds 17.5 gallons.
It did not beat the Aussies in 2002 they covered 1459.16 miles on diesel in a Peugeot 406.
I don't no if you guys get the BBC TOP GEAR program James May one of the presenters did this expo
Japanese car manufacturer Honda has begun the first commercial production of a zero-emission, hydrogen fuel-cell powered vehicle.
The four-seater, called FCX Clarity, runs on electricity produced by combining hydrogen with oxygen, and emits water vapour.
With regards to the drawbacks of the FCX Clarity and where to get the hydrogen from, its not that difficult any more.
MIT themselves have recently developed a catalyst for splitting water at room temperature and it uses less current than other more expensive catalysts.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is pushing to get 200 hydrogen filling stations built by 2010 stretching from Vancouver, British Columbia, all the way
down to Baja, California.
In contrast with this the Americans have an all electric car The TESLA ROADSTER ( its a bloody shame what they have done to this guy) its battery powered
I'm not going to bother with their stats but it will take you about 200 miles and then you can recharge it but this takes about 6 to 7 hours.
I suppose that if you are on a trip going from California to New York your best bet would be WELLS FARGO.........................
Solar power plants could surge
25/05/2009 22:33 - (SA)
Paris - Solar power plants in deserts using mirrors to concentrate the sun's rays have the potential to generate up to 25% of the world's electricity by 2050, a report by pro-solar groups said on Monday.
The study, by environmental group Greenpeace, the European Solar Thermal Electricity Association (ESTELA) and the International Energy Agency's (IEA) SolarPaces group, said huge investments would also create jobs and fight climate change.
"Solar power plants are the next big thing in renewable energy," said Sven Teske of Greenpeace International and co-author of the report. The technology is suited to hot, cloudless regions such as the Sahara or Middle East.
The 28-page report said investments in concentrating solar power (CSP) plants were set to exceed $2.80bn worldwide this year, with the biggest installations under construction in southern Spain and California.
"Concentrating solar power could meet up to 7% of the world's projected power needs in 2030 and a full quarter by 2050," it said of the most optimistic scenario.
That is far more optimistic than business-as-usual projections by the Paris-based IEA, which advises rich nations. It indicates that "by 2050 the penetration of solar power would be no higher than 0.2% globally," the report noted.
CSP uses arrays of hundreds of mirrors or lenses to concentrate the sun's rays to temperatures between 400 and 1 000 Celsius to provide energy to drive a power plant.
- Reuters