By Jason Deign

The prospects for CSP development in Australia appear to be taking a tumble as government support for renewable energy drops away.

Recent months have seen at least two developers shelving CSP plans for the country amid government efforts to cut the country’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) and axe the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), a major funding body.

In July,the US developer SolarReserve

announced it was giving up on Australia

as a market for grid-connected CSP. 

The move followed the appointment of a global warming doubter, Dick Warburton, to lead a review of the RET.

Days later it emerged that Ratch Australia, which was planning to build the first CSP plant in North Queensland, was shuttering the project because of economic concerns. Lack of government support was likely to increase project costs by 84%, ABC reported.

Ratch’s Collinsville project had received funding from ARENA and was due to use Novatec Solar’s linear Fresnel technology in a hybrid configuration with PV and gas generation.

The SolarReserve and Ratch back-downs leave the future of Australian grid-connected CSP seriously in doubt. Only two serious contenders seem to still be committed to the market.

Abengoa Solar, the Spanish company, is carrying out a feasibility study for a 20MW power tower project in Perenjori, Western Australia, with ARENA backing worth AUD$450,000.

And Vast Solar, an Australian company, is building a 6MW thermal (1.1MW electrical) plant in Jemalong, New South Wales, which when complete will be the only operating CSP facility with thermal storage in Australia. This is a precursor to going ahead with a 30MW project.

Investment destination

“The current government appears to have deliberately set out to undermine Australia's attractiveness as an investment destination for renewable energy,” comments Andrew Want, chair of the Australian solar thermal association Austela.

“This has directly caused investors

and developers involved in

concentrating solar thermal power

to withdraw or downsize activity in Australia.”

A difficult investment climate could present a significant challenge for CSP, which has had a hard time establishing itself in Australia despite near-ideal conditions including high direct normal irradiance, a stretched power grid and plenty of research and development muscle.

Of the 15 or so Australian projects that have been announced over the years, it appears only one, Graphite Energy’s Lake Cargelligo pilot, is currently in operation.

Vast Solar’s 1.2MWth Demonstration facility  

Meanwhile, the 40MW Whyalla Solar Oasis plant in South Australia was shelved last year for lack of ARENA funding.

The 30MW Acquasol 1 parabolic trough desalination project due to be developed at nearby Point Paterson seems similarly unlikely to ever go ahead. Acquasol was reported to be having funding problems in 2010 and the company’s web site is no longer active.

Sundrop Farms’ more recent the 50MW Alinta Energy Port Augusta seems to be faring better. “The project appears to be funded and likely to proceed,” Want reports.

Kogan Creek solar reflector

And at Kogan Creek, Queensland, CS Energy is progressing with a 44MW hybrid CSP steam-boost project based on Areva linear Fresnel technology.

Areva has said it will support the project despite pulling out of the CSP market, but commercial issues have led to delays. Kogan Creek had previously been slated for development by a consortium including Parsons Brinckerhoff and Siemens, which has also since abandoned CSP.

Industrial issues

Finally, two existing linear Fresnel units at the Liddell Power Station in New South Wales have stopped operating due to industrial issues.

Tellingly, even Graphite Energy’s chief executive officer Nick Bain has decided to focus on energy storage rather than CSP. “I’m a believer in solar thermal, but I think PV has stolen the march,” he says.

“I can’t see solar thermal being competitive now, except for very specific applications, such as enhanced oil recovery in the Middle East.”

In Australia, perhaps more than elsewhere, there may be some truth in the notion that PV is hampering the development of CSP. A boom in residential PV installations is credited with helping to reduce overall electricity demand, which is one of the reasons for the RET review.

But even for PV, says NPD Solarbuzz senior analyst Michael Barker: “The current situation in Australia is a bit unsettled due to continued policy changes and a generally negative policy outlook.”

What Australia still has going for it,

as far as CSP is concerned,

is the potential for solar thermal 

to be used in off-grid and

industrial settings such as mining.

The country also has one of the world’s premier research facilities in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) National Solar Energy Centre in Newcastle, New South Wales.

CSIRO is currently working on groundbreaking CSP research programmes with industrial partners such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

In the current climate, however, it very much remains to be seen now much of this innovation will make it into operational grid-connected plants in Australia.